The Trials of Marjorie Crowe by C. S. Robertson
How do you solve a murder when everyone thinks you're guilty?
Marjorie Crowe lives in Kilgoyne, Scotland. The locals put her age at somewhere between 55 and 70. They think she's divorced or a lifelong spinster; that she used to be a librarian, a pharmacist, or a witch. They think she's lonely, or ill, or maybe just plain rude. For the most part, they leave her be.
But one day, everything changes.
Local teenager Charlie McKee is found hanging in the woods, and Marjorie is the first one to see his body. When what she saw turns out to be impossible, the police have their doubts. And when another young person goes missing, the tide of suspicion turns on her.
Is Marjorie the monster, or the victim? And how far will she go to fight for her name?
About the author
A former journalist, Craig Robertson had a 20-year career with a Scottish Sunday newspaper before becoming a full-time author. He interviewed three Prime Ministers, reported on major stories including 9/11, Dunblane, the Omagh bombing and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. He was pilloried on breakfast television, beat Oprah Winfrey to a major scoop, spent time on Death Row in the USA and dispensed polio drops in the backstreets of India. His first novel, Random, was shortlisted for the 2010 CWA New Blood Dagger, longlisted for the 2011 Crime Novel of the Year and was a Sunday Times bestseller. He has been both longlisted and shortlisted for writing prizes. He now shares his time between Scotland and California and can usually be found on a plane somewhere over the Atlantic.
Review
‘The Trials of Marjorie Crowe’ is a fantastic blend of the past and present, full of bright and original characters, and I was consumed by it! This is one of the books which I flew through during the festive break and I really want to ‘shout off the hilltops’ with this one as it's bloody fantastic. I had high hopes for it as I loved his last book ‘The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill’ and this one was just as excellent written I will be thinking about Marjorie for a lot to come.
Craig has created a multifaceted and brilliantly original character in Marjorie Crowe. It's not often we get to see a ‘witch’ in modern Scottish fiction as they are normally confined to historical fiction and based in the era of the witch trials etc. What we find here is a modern version of this rich vein of historical fiction and I was all for it! Marjorie is definitely one of a kind, determined, honest and has a heart made of gold. She is very nuanced but not overly complicated and the author isn't tempted to over-embellish her either. She has her rituals and every day she completes an anti-clockwise circuit of the village, something the village views with suspicion. It's during one of these walks that she discovers the body of a young boy hanging from a tree in a clearing of the local woods. But rather than informing the police she goes straight home and doesn't tell a soul. The police soon arrive on her doorstep though and she soon becomes the main suspect both for the police and for the locals of the village. It's from here onwards that Marjorie has to face the wrath of the locals and also those so called keyboard warriors on Twitter!
Honestly, this book was an outstanding mix of old and new, with the blending of history with the present. It's an ode to Scotland with its rich descriptions of the landscape, its people and its history. The inclusion of real women who were tried and executed as witches really rammed home the point that the author was trying to make. We all judge. We are all capable of making uninformed leaps of judgment to conclusions which are incorrect. But rather than admit this, we just put a face on it and get on with agreeing with the pack. However, there are those out there that are willing to look through that and really ask who the person is and determine the real facts of it all.
This is a multilayered and nuanced book full of nods to history, with an incredible sense of space and a narrative which really spoke to my heart! I thoroughly recommend this book and I predict that this is going to do well in 2024.
Let me know if you pick this one up!
