This is a review of 'The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps' by Michel Faber, an author that I have read before, in fact 'Under the Skin' was one of the most haunting and scary books I ever read and have returned to a few times. In short, 199 Steps was written in 2001 and refers to the famous steps at Whitby which lead up to the Abbey. I have trod these steps many times in my life and thought it sounded like a 'must read' book. I would have liked to read this book in an idle B&B moment in Whitby but it didn't look like that would happen any time soon.

Unusual
This book begins with a strange concept. The author was invited to the abbey to write a short story during the actual dig. I can't help but think this was a bit of a PR stunt on the Archaeology front. They could also sell the book from the gift shop then too!

Plot
Whitby is famous for its gothic vampire links, something which I am sure they have used to increase the tourism to the area. They also do great fish and chips but I am certainly getting off plot here. The book does feature some of Whitby's history but it is largely a fictional short novel , at just 115 pages. The main character Sian joins the dig and we learn a little of her personal history, a difficult accident in Bosnia has left her disabled but she tries to hide this with layers of clothing and a thick skin to any questions asked by strangers.

Friends?
During the time she is employed to dig at Whitby she is befriended by a runner with his dog. The runner is a sexy doctor who is temporarily staying at Whitby to complete a research paper and sort out his late father's affairs and estate. Sian is attracted to the sweaty stranger and loves his dog but she is so spikey she will not let him get close to her. Sian suffers from insomnia, wandering around Whitby in the early hours of each morning, killing time until her work starts and she has a persistent bad dream in the B&B she stays at that she is being strangled by a stranger she loves. He caresses her head then slits her throat and she wakes each time, clutching her neck to her body.

Intrigue
The Doctor who runs draws in Sian with an old artefact found in his father's house foundations. A message in a bottle, damaged by time but full of intrigue. Sian has the right connections to carefully open the bottle and separate the layers of paper and translate the olde English written hundreds of years before.

My thoughts
I enjoyed reading this short book on a simplistic level but I can see why it has been criticised by some in that it does not go into much depth or explanation. The message in a bottle ties in nicely with the other parts of the story and is quite interesting. I was quite happy to finish the book and will never bother to return to it again as I have with Faber's other novel I read.

The steps explained
I have a particularly memorable school trip to Whitby where I was the kid that got ill and had to go to hospital thus ruining everyone else's stay. An infected foot was the ailment which brings me back to the 199 steps. I had to hop up them on my good foot to enable the class to go out that day as it was a 'one stays in all stays in' rule due to teacher supervision obligations. This may be why this book spoke to me in particular. I know those steps well.

Final word
This is a nice book to read if you are planning to visit Whitby as it contains some history pertaining to the Abbey and a lot of conjecture about the Nuns and their lives. Whilst it was a short read, I'm not sure I wanted any more from this book. It was an interesting concept that Faber practically wrote this book 'to order' and clearly had lots of history information to hand to help him write it.