If you’ve ever read a Nicola Barker novel you more or less know what to expect, which is to mostly not know what to expect. Her books have a kind of wildness to them, and especially in voice. They’re also usually very funny. This book is all of those things.
The book begins with a long rant from a police inspector handing off a mystery to another detective. In the rant, among other things, we learn that in the small town of Burley Cross (BC) a post box has been broken into and dozens of letters were stolen. Presumably the answer lies in those missing letters as to the nature of the crime. The rest of the novel is each one of those letters (which were found behind a shop) which give a view into the inter-personal turmoil of the town, which includes a several wannabe novelists, a disaffected former novelty musician, a church production of a Jesus play, and a lot of other things. Each letter’s narrator (some of whom double or triple up over the course of the novel) has their own distinct voice that we are privy too, along with their unique petit dramas in the town. The book ends up being a lot like a few other authors (and this is only by way of trying to provide some comparison) to David Mitchell, Agatha Christie, Thomas Pynchon, and Kathy Acker. Like I said, it’s ultimately a wild ride, and like other Barker novels this one starts off a trilogy of what I think is thematic connections.
