Jackaby by William Ritter (Jackaby, #1) * * * *
The book takes place in 1892, which I found particularly funny because I recently read The Yellow Wallpaper, which was published in 1892. What are the chances? Apparently I am accidentally spending quite a lot of time in 1892 at the moment.
Our POV character is Abigail Rook, a seventeen year old English girl who has recently arrived in New Fiddleham, New England. She comes from a fairly intellectual family, but she is frustrated by the limitations placed on her because she is a girl. She wants adventure. When she is prevented from joining her father on his travels, she eventually takes matters into her own hands and joins a paleontological expedition in Eastern Europe instead. Unfortunately, the expedition does not turn out quite the way she hoped. She is supposed to return home afterwards, but while travelling back she discovers that she can continue on to America instead. So she does.
Honestly, if we are looking for the teen angst part of this book, there it is. Abigail essentially decides that she is going to prove that she can make her own way in the world without her parents, gets on a ship to another continent, and only sends them a postcard afterwards. It is an extremely dramatic solution to the problem of wanting more independence, but I respect the commitment.
By the time she arrives in New Fiddleham, however, Abigail is running very low on money and desperately needs a job. That is how she ends up meeting R. F. Jackaby, a paranormal investigator who deals with all the things that most people either cannot see or refuse to believe exist. Abigail is intrigued by him and applies to become his assistant, which immediately throws her into an investigation involving a series of gruesome murders.
What I really liked about Abigail and Jackaby as an investigative team is that their strengths complement each other. Jackaby sees the supernatural. He notices creatures, magic, auras, and all the bizarre details that are completely invisible to everyone else. Abigail, meanwhile, notices the mundane things that Jackaby overlooks. She pays attention to ordinary physical details and human behaviour. Jackaby can walk into a room and immediately see everything supernatural about it while somehow missing the perfectly normal clue sitting right in front of him. Abigail sees that clue.
There is obviously something Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson adjacent about the setup. We have the eccentric detective who notices things nobody else does and the more grounded narrator who accompanies him through the investigation. Jackaby himself also has some of that stereotypical brilliant weirdo energy. Everyone in town seems to know who he is, and there is a general sense of, “Oh, that is just Jackaby.” He is strange, unpredictable, and completely comfortable with being considered strange.
But Abigail prevents the relationship from feeling like a simple Holmes and Watson copy. She is not merely there to admire Jackaby's brilliance or ask questions so he can explain things to the reader. Her observational skills fill a genuine gap in his abilities. There are things she can see precisely because they are ordinary, and that makes her useful to him from the beginning.
I also really liked Abigail herself. One small aspect of her characterization that stood out to me was the way the book handles her femininity. She is independent, adventurous, and perfectly willing to wear trousers when the situation requires them because trying to run around a dinosaur dig in a Victorian skirt is not practical. But she also likes dresses. When she is investigating on the streets of New England she is happy to change back into one. She wants clothes that are comfortable and practical, but she also wants them to be cute. And she wants pockets, which is completely understandable.
It sounds like a tiny detail, but I appreciated it because historical fiction and fantasy sometimes seem reluctant to let a strong female character actually enjoy traditionally feminine things. The shortcut becomes making her dislike dresses, sewing, dancing, or anything else coded as feminine while she embraces traditionally masculine clothes and interests instead. Abigail does not need to reject femininity in order to reject the limitations placed on her. She can want adventure and independence and still like a pretty dress. Those things are not contradictory.
The supporting cast also seems very deliberately set up for the rest of the series, and I liked them enough that I am happy about that. In particular, there is a ghost living in Jackaby's house, Jenny, whose presence can be funny but also surprisingly sad. The supernatural elements are generally treated lightly, but the book allows some of them to have real emotional weight. Jenny is not simply there because having a resident ghost is quirky. There is a tragedy behind the fact that she is still there, and that gives the world a little more depth.
As for the mystery itself, the investigation revolves around a string of murders that Jackaby is convinced have a supernatural cause, despite the police preferring considerably more ordinary explanations. There is also a banshee involved, which I clocked almost immediately. The book mixes a fairly traditional murder investigation with folklore and paranormal creatures, and I thought the two sides worked well together. It never becomes so consumed by its supernatural worldbuilding that it forgets that it is also supposed to be a mystery.
I did guess the identity of the main villain quite early. I could not actually tell you exactly how I guessed it. Sometimes with mysteries there is a specific clue that gives everything away, and sometimes my brain simply points at someone and says, “That one.” This was one of those occasions. I knew who it was long before I could have constructed a convincing argument for why I knew.
That did not ruin the book for me, though, because the mystery was only part of what made it enjoyable. I liked watching Abigail settle into this bizarre new life and figure out how she fits into Jackaby's world. I liked the combination of the mundane and the supernatural, and I liked that the book could be funny and playful without turning the murders into a complete joke.
Overall, Jackaby was light, fun, and exactly the kind of paranormal mystery that does not take itself too seriously while still giving me an actual story to care about. It did not give me that overwhelming feeling of needing to pick up the second book immediately, which is why I settled on four stars rather than five. But I absolutely do want to continue the series.
In fact, I think this could become one of those series I return to whenever I want something comfortable, strange, funny, and mysterious. Sometimes a book does not need to leave me desperate for the sequel. Sometimes it is enough to leave me happy that there is one waiting for me.
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