The Turnglass - by Gareth Rubin

Book Synopsis

This beautifully written, immersive, and unique crime story is a tête-bêche novel--two intertwined stories printed back-to-back. Open the book and the first novella begins. It ends in the middle of the book. Flip the book over, head to tail, and read the second story in the opposite direction. At the book's core are two separate mysteries running across two different timelines, which are inextricably, forever linked.

1880s, Essex, England: Idealistic young doctor Simeon Lee is called from London to treat his ailing relative Parson Oliver Hawes, who lives in Turnglass House on a bleak island off the coast. Hawes believes he's being poisoned by his sister-in-law, Florence, who was declared mad years ago after killing the parson's brother in a jealous rage. Hawes keeps her locked in a glass-walled apartment in the Turnglass library; the secret to how she came to be there is found in his tête-bêche journal, where one side tells a very different story from the other.

1930s, Hollywood: Celebrated author Oliver Tooke, the governor's son, is found dead by apparent suicide. His aspiring actor friend Ken Kourian isn't so sure Oliver took his own life. He finds a link between Oliver's death and the mysterious kidnapping of Oliver's brother when they were children. He also discovers the secret incarceration of Oliver's mother, Florence, in an asylum. To get to the truth, Ken must decipher clues hidden in Oliver's final book, a tête-bêche novel called The Turnglass--which is about a young doctor named Simeon Lee . . . 

About the Author

Gareth Rubin writes about social affairs, travel, and the arts for British newspapers. He is the author of The Winter Agent, about Allied agents in Paris on the eve of D-Day; Liberation Square, a murder mystery set in Soviet-occupied London; and The Waterfall, the sequel to The Turnglass, which encompasses a story with a story within a story. He lives in London.