‘The Surgeon’s House’ by Jody Cooksley

Published by Allison & Busby,
22 May 2025.
ISBN: 978-0-74903172-5 (HB)

Woe betide a woman who behaved in any way contrary to her ordained role in late 19^th century England. Ordained, of course, by men, who could behave as they liked, and convinced themselves that women were the weaker sex in terms of intelligence as well as physical ability.

But Rebecca Harris has flouted convention and found a way to treat women as human beings deserving of respect, including, or especially, those who escape from abusive marriages, or, heaven forfend, give birth to a child outside holy wedlock. She has taken over Evergreen House, a place where unspeakable cruelty was inflicted on such women, and transformed it into a place of warmth, solace and above all refuge for both the women and their children.

Evil has been perpetrated in Evergreen House, but that is in the past – until Rose, the cook and housekeeper, loved by all the women, is brutally murdered. Suddenly everything Rebecca has built seems to be in danger of falling apart. The house’s income shrinks as orders dry up for the delicate baskets and wallpaper the women make. The uber-conventional overseers of the Charity Board, led by covetous Mr Lavell, threaten to send the children to a bleak orphanage and turn Evergreen House into one of the disciplinarian magdalen laundries to which most unmarried mothers are consigned. And then the body of Felicia, one of the young women, is found in the grounds. Who can be responsible for undermining Rebecca’s dream?

The background to this dark, almost Gothic mystery, and the world both in and outside Evergreen House, has all clearly been thoroughly researched. The unlit lanes and alleys; the slightly seedy taverns; the asylums for the insane, where money and influence buy favours; the deeply flawed medical research: all these are as powerfully realized as warm and welcoming Evergreen House itself. The characters are sharp and varied, ranging from lively, ambitious Sophia and her bright son Albie, to stern, supercilious Mr Lavell, and many more besides. Rebecca herself is a very human mix of determination and vulnerability, and her husband George has hidden depths.

Questions need to be answered. First and foremost, who murdered Rose and Felicia? Who is the mysterious Angela? Whose side will Dr Threlfall who works in the basement take? Finally, how will Rebecca ensure the survival of the haven she has created for pariahs of society? The Surgeon’s House is both tense murder mystery and a detailed illustration of a slice of history, and makes an excellent fist of both.   ~
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Reviewer:  Lynne Patrick 

Jody Cooksley studied literature at Oxford Brookes University and has a Masters in Victorian Poetry. Her debut novel The Glass House is a fictional account of the life of nineteenth-century photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron. The Small Museum, Jody’s third novel, won the 2023 Caledonia Novel Award. Jody is originally from Norwich and now lives in Cranleigh.  

https://jrcbooks.co.uk/   

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.