The Tower, The Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart, FIC STUA
Ever since I became a mom, my tolerance for stories about young children in danger or children who have died has been zero. So why I picked up The Tower, The Zoo and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart is beyond me. But I think I’m glad I did.
Balthazar Jones is a Beefeater who lives and works in the Tower of London. He and his wife, Hebe, lost their eleven year old son three years ago. They still are grieving profoundly, and are losing their own relationship to that grief.
Then one day, the Queen’s equerry informs Balthazar that the Queen would like to move the animals that have been gifted to her from other heads of state to the Tower from the London Zoo. She wants to boost tourist attendance at the Tower by re-establishing the Royal Menagerie, which had been housed in the Tower by her predecessors. Balthazar is to be the Head Keeper of the Royal Menagerie.
While Balthazar feels woefully undeserving of the title, he accepts it anyway, realizing that his job performance has suffered greatly since his son’s death. He wants to ensure his job is secure since it’s the only thing that gives him reason to get out of bed.
Couple Balthazar’s story with Hebe’s, who works in the London Underground Lost Property Office, working diligently to reunited people with their lost items, ranging from the usual books and umbrellas to a safe, a magician’s cabinet, fake eyes and even an urn of ashes. The last prompts Hebe to finally start to deal with her grief, even if she has to do so alone.
There are wonderfully quirky characters here, such as the Reverend who writes best-selling erotic fiction as a side job, the philandering Ravenmaster and the Ravens beloved by him alone, and the Menagerie animals, each of whom has his or her own well-developed personality. The eccentricities of all of the characters was a welcome counterpoint to the sadness.
What I thought was going to be a light-hearted farce ended up being a poignant look at longing and grief. I almost put it down several times; the devastating anguish of Balthazar and Hebe was palpable. But I so desperately cared for them, and for the other inhabitants of the Tower (Well, not the Ravenmaster and the Ravens. They’re just mean.) that I needed to keep reading. In the end, it was the right choice.
Humpty Dumpty has had a big fall indeed, and it looks like foul play. So thinks Jack Spratt, the head of the under-staffed and under-funded Nursery Crimes Division of the Reading Police Department. Jack’s getting pressure to wind up the Humpty investigation quickly, in order to make up his recent debacle trying to convice the 3 pigs of pre-meditated murder of the wolf. But the Humpty investigation is raising more questions than answers, and Jack’s whole Nursery Crimes department is on the line.
The Book of Joby by Mark J. Ferrari