Available Formats
Hardback
Published: 23rd July 2024
Paperback
Published: 23rd July 2024
Paperback
Published: 6th May 2025
The Small Museum: A chilling historical mystery set against the gothic backdrop of Victorian London
By (Author) Jody Cooksley
Allison & Busby
Allison & Busby
23rd July 2024
16th May 2024
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
823.92
Hardback
320
Width 134mm, Height 216mm
London, 1873. Madeleine Brewster marries Dr Lucius Everley in a union thatMaddie's parents hope will restore the family's sullied reputation. Lucius is acollector of natural curiosities, his 'Small Museum' of bones and things in jarskept under lock and key. His sister Grace runs Evergreen House for fallenw omen. Neither they nor the housekeepers will let Maddie have anyinvolvement in their work, and she is often alone and confused by what shesees and hears in the house.
When Maddie demonstrates her skill for drawing, Lucius agrees to let her helphim in his attempt to make a breakthrough in evolutionary science, bydiscovering the first 'fish with feet'. But the more she learns about both Luciusand his sister's activities, she comes to suspect that behind their reputableworks lie unimaginable horrors.
Framed for a crime that would see her hanged and allow the Everleys tocontinue their work unencumbered, Maddie's only hope is her friend CarolineFairly, who in alternating chapters attends her trial and starts to put the piecestogether...
Jody Cooksley is a writer based in Surrey. A trained journalist, Jody's careerhas spanned writing in all its forms. Jody studied literature at Oxford BrookesUniversity and has a Masters in Victorian Poetry. Her debut novel The GlassHouse is a fictional account of the life of nineteenth-century photographer, JuliaMargaret Cameron. The Small Museum, Jody's third novel, won the 2023Caledonia Novel Award. Jody is originally from Norwich and now lives inCranleigh.