Fiction The Hoarder by Jess Kidd review – a lyrical gothic detective saga Strange photographs spark this unsettling journey into a labyrinth of decay and eccentricity Descriptive skill and wordplay … Jess Kidd. Irish author Jess Kidd’s debut Himself was one of the standout titles of 2016, rightly praised for its unique voice and tenor. Quite why Saints Dymphna, Valentine, George et al haunt Maud is never really established and their function is vague. The unsettling Bridlemere is part Bluebeard’s castle, part fly-tipped ManderleySaints aside, characterisation is where Kidd excels. As such, the house becomes a receptacle of past transgressions, an uncanny place where time, says Maud, “wavers and retreats … coughing and shambling”.

Source: The Guardian February 15, 2018 15:00 UTC