Take a look at my short story collection of cosy mysteries featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now!
Review
A slightly absurdist debut novel from the turn of the century, The Eyre Affair initiates the Thursday Next series, which is one that I am still itching to get into properly. Coming back to this novel and writing this review will hopefully be motivational!
The novel takes us back to the 1980s, but more importantly, in Thursday’s world, time and reality are deeply unstable. The Crimean War is ongoing. (Which one? Well, not the last two, which take place after this novel was published. In that respect, you sort of get his drift.) There is a hard border with Wales that has a properly socialist government. (Might that be so bad…?) But people can travel not just through ‘real’ history; books, too, are up for grabs.
Her father is a disgraced police officer, but a police officer working on time itself (in the ChronoGuard), and so his disgrace means he has been edited from the historical record. Still, he lurks on the edges. Thursday’s own job is trying to keep books solid as part of the LiteraTecs unit. Her hub is Swindon, but her real work is done in-world, within the books themselves. Master criminal Acheron Styx is out there kidnapping characters from novels left right and centre, focusing on Dickens in an initial spree, but then expanding outwards to—as you will have guessed—Brontë. Jane Eyre has lost its Jane, and Thursday must try to find her.
The premise is wonderful for any book lover, with a certain air of Douglas Adams or China Mièville that delivers whimsy (e.g. the genetically engineered pet dodo) and delight as well as some proper genre-bending. I love Thursday and her world. People love books here, and they think about them, perhaps too much. The books themselves are a sort of time loop, but one in which the characters are knowing participants. They are actors in a play, knowing how it ends but doing their best to not let on and to appear to live in the moment.
This book is absorbing, pleasing, and bears re-reading. Now, hopefully, on to the next Thursday!
See also
These lists capture other stories and characters that I thought of as I was reading this piece. I won’t explain why, to avoid spoilers, but they’re associations and not ‘if you liked this, then you’ll love…’ recommendations!
- Death and Croissants (Ian Moore)
- Kraken (China Mièville)
- Odd Squad (TV series)
Take a look at my short story collection featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now!
Dominique Gracia 
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