Mary Reilly - Valerie Martin

I intended quickly skim reading Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin for two reasons; because I have just bought the new Philippa Gregory novel, The Other Queen, and couldn't wait to get my teeth into that, and also because the book looked so incredibly boring based on the cover and blurb on the back. How wrong I was, from around the 10th page I was absolutely hooked and found it hard to put Mary Reilly down at the end of the evening. It's a relatively short book at 237 pages and I read the whole thing within three days, as a fairly slow reader I was surprised with the speed I got through the story and found that hours had passed in a blur while I sat ...  Read the complete review

This is a fabulous story about one of Dr Jekyll's domestic staff - Mary Reilly. It cleverly weaves in extracts from Robert Louis Stevenson's `Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'. The length may seem short but Valerie Martin packs a lot into this story. All of the characters are wonderful and with Martin's eye for detail the imagery brings the household to life. I haven't read the original story, but know of the plot and I found it entertaining and enthralling to read about it from one of the original characters. It's a bit like looking at a painting and wondering about what really when on behind the story. Even the way in which writers of the time would put lines after ...  Read the complete review