Victoria Dowd – Body on the Island (2021)

Review

This is the second in the Smart Women series, featuring mother and daughter Ursula and Pandora Smart (in-world, supposedly not their real names), aunt Charlotte, and godmother Mirabelle, plus book-club hanger-on Bridget and her dog.

The unreliable narrator of the series, Ursula, is prima facie a shaky, timid soul who hasn’t ever recovered from the death of her father when she was 13. Her mother, Pandora, is brittle in the way that many female characters in their 50s are often perceived, particularly by others. Aunt Charlotte, presented as something of an unworldly old maid, but with a latent lascivious streak, is the primary source of humour amongst the Smart women. I warm mostly, of course, to Charlotte, and then to a lesser extent to Pandora and to her best friend and fierce defender, Mirabelle. Ursula is treated as an irritating and self-absorbed millennial and often presents that way to the reader, too, with her inability to see anything from anyone else’s point of view. This does, however, lend itself to the twists and turns of amateur detectiving.

As in the previous book, the Smart women are accidentally thrust into a bloodbath of a “holiday”, and parental relationships (and death) are again the golden thread that sings under the surface all the way along. The setting is different, but not entirely: where before we were snowed in at a manor house, we are now shipwrecked on a Hebridean island. The weather is no one’s friend. Perhaps the Smart women should try to seek some sun next time?

Because none of our core foursome can be the killer, they are marooned with a literally motley crew: two men who lead survivalist holidays, the foraging wife of one of them, a drunk captain, a lovestruck couple, and two lone young men, one adorned with love charms, the other more of a local lad. Ursula’s inability to trust what she sees or say what she means, combined with Charlotte’s inability to quite carry out any instruction, allow things to get rather out of hand. The setting is interesting, however, with plenty of gothic material to be had, and a resolution that satisfies. We also see Ursula potentially making connections with people outside the familial group; one to watch for the next instalment!

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!

• The Smart Woman’s Guide to Murder (Victoria Dowd)
• The Girl in Cell A (Vaseem Khan)
• Eight Detectives (Alex Pavesi)

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