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Eponymous Margaret knows her stuff intensively but has always been in a supporting role for her esteemed professor, Joe. When he's found dead in the university lab, police deem it natural causes, but Margaret, always preternaturally observant, picks up bits of evidence to the contrary. Suspects start to pile up, especially the glad-hander who's ready to claim Joe's research as his own and step into Joe's position. A custodian who also knows plants teams up with Margaret and the truth finally emerges. Some of this mystery feels a little pro-forma, but I really enjoyed getting to know Margaret's quirky personality and her extensive knowledge.
Subtitled A Memoir of Sorts. The author and I are age-mates, so I was fascinated to roll through eight plus decades with her, which triggered my own memories of world events we both experienced. (Like finding out that WWII had ended when we were six years old.) Boy, can she tell a story, and this book is jam-packed with them, often with her characteristic witty fillip at the end of each. Like, "Was it with a sigh of relief or a shiver of apprehension as to what lay in wait for us. How about both?" What a pleasure to be in the company of a brilliant, engaged, far-ranging yet intimate writer who's been around more blocks than I can fathom.
Four stories connect in surprising ways, as we get to know a woman who's fled to a tiny island, another who seduces schoolboys, a man who was one of her victims, and another man who takes a journey back to that very island with his son from whom he's been estranged. So much in these narratives feature cruelty and manipulation that I started to lose hope, but somehow Boyne created a sense of resolution and relief at the end. I was also haunted by my knowledge of the author's anti-trans views which don't show themselves here. But I fell deeply into the tale and appreciated what was on the page, no matter what he espouses in "real life." It's tricky...
This novel is a speculative take on England circa 1979. In this version, the government gets into scientific explorations that would be verboten nowadays. The scene unfolds at the Captain Scott Home for Boys (which bears the name of the doomed arctic explorer who said, "I am just going out and may be some time?"), where identical triplets live in this huge manor house, tended to by three women. Turns out the boys were hatched as part of an experiment to test drugs on living subjects. The project is winding down, the perpetrator, Dr. Roach, is in disgrace, and what will become of the boys? This book is creepy as all get-out and I was riveted.
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