Historical Mystery Lovers discussion

Series Gabriel Taverner

by Alys Clare

A Rustle of Silk
The Angel in the Glass
The Indigo Ghosts
Magic in the Weave
The Cargo from Neira

ongoing, 5 titles so far. Beginning in 1603, with the reign of James I, set in Devon in and near Plymouth.

Setting: good period atmosphere; the larger historical context provides the raw material for some of the mysteries

Main characters: Gabriel Taverner is a former ship’s surgeon turned country physician. I admit that my wish for ‘period characters’, i.e. the attempt to imagine a personality of the period, comes to its limits here: I suppose we would have a hard time relating to a character of a period rampant with very strange medical practices, religious beliefs and superstitions. So our hero is much ahead of his time in terms of scientific thinking, medicine, religious tolerance, and anti-slavery attitude.

Secondary characters: the main set are the hero’s friends and his sister. Although some have the usual dark spots in their (back)story, taken together they are a bit too idealised for my taste: all oh so good and beautiful.

Narration: the doctor is our first person narrator - but there are also sections narrated from other perspectives in third person, first by Theo Davey, the Plymouth coroner, then also by Celia, Gabriel’s sister, the main secondary characters, but other narrative voices come in whenever the author sees fit to do so. - This is a strange narrative device, as it breaks the consistency of the framing - e.g. the hero’s memories, an imagined listener or the like - , and I find it irritating. I can’t help thinking it’s a bit of sloppy writing. The author did not go to the trouble to figure out situations in which our first person narrator sees or hears for himself what he relates to the reader.

What most irritates me, though, is the total neglect of the difference in voices. Whoever narrates, talks, or tells a story, it’s all in the same language and style. Whether Cambridge-trained priest or fugitive slave - it’s all the same English.

Mysteries: the first one is a bit entangled and not entirely logic … but unfortunately, it goes downhill from there. The recipe seems to be to stack two or more puzzles one on top of the other to create confusion. The downside of this is that the solutions are unsatisfactory, and need pages and pages of story-telling to be disentangled.

Vol. 3 and 4 stand out negatively in this respect. I felt strongly reminded of Pirates of the Caribbean scriptwriting plus some D&D maze crawling, with a wild mixture of eerie (apparently or not so) voodoo, magic, hermetism etc. thrown in for good measure. The patchwork of supernatural elements is meant to cover up the gaping holes in the logic of the mysteries. Some readers like such stories - I don’t. The latest instalment fortunately returns to the solid ground of the usual motives and weapons, the mystery is less confused - but then, our sleuths do not contribute much to solving it. And now our hero goes off to sea again …

Romance: the author takes the infamous technique of the veeeery slow-paced romance to new heights by making a big step backwards! In vol. 4, hero spends night with love interest. Vol. 5 says it was no more than a kiss. It’s simply sloppy. Maybe just one example of today’s careless and hasty mass content production, but I need not condone that, do I?

I’m not sure whether I will pick up the next instalment. Maybe the blurb will be sufficient to satisfy my curiosity as to whether the series follows the hero on his voyage, or picks up on his return.

They are interesting books for their settings and the research the author does; I have liked them for this and because I like the character of Gabriel. But the inclusion of "woo woo" elements increasingly puts me off.

I like the series, especially the characters, and hadn't noticed the problems mentioned. I admit I can be quite forgiving when involved in the story.