Book review: The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis (Penguin, £9.99)

‘The girls, the infernal heat, a fresh-dead body.’ As a first line, this is a cracking opener and THE HOUNDING by Xenobe Purvis proves eminently readable. Purvis’s debut novel launched in hardback last year, and the paperback is out now. It has long been on my TBR list. I was intrigued by the novel’s premise: set in a sleepy Oxfordshire village, during the 18th century, the book centres around Anne, Elizabeth, Hester, Grace and Mary, five motherless sisters, living on their grandfather’s farm. Although the book opens with a dead body, it then turns back in time, as we’re introduced to a host of village characters, from the river ferryman Pete Darling, who resents the strangeness and (what he perceives to be) arrogance of the girls, to Thomas Mildmay, who joins the farm to assist in haymaking, and gentle Robin Wildgoose, a farmhand. It is the cusp of summer and as the novel progresses, the sharply rising heat, the dropping river level, the ripening of flowers and fruits, contribute to an increasingly feverish atmosphere, as Little Nettlebed falls victim to unexplained ‘happenings’. First, a dead sturgeon is found in the river, then local hens are apparently killed by dogs. When Pete Darling starts a rumour that he’s seen all five girls transforming into dogs, it’s not long before the village rumour mill begins and there’s increasingly dangerous scrutiny on the sisters. This is a well-paced novel, and I read it swiftly. Purvis steeps her fictional world in long-lost, sensual, natural imagery: every stem of buttercup, camomile flower, and honeysuckle sings. The writing is gorgeous. There’s also an excellent sense of rising tension as the novel hurtles towards its conclusion. One of the powerful underlying messages of this work is that single women historically had so little agency in society, and no redress if men chose to besmirch their reputation; to get this across, much of the book is seen through the lens of the key male characters. Yet, although we observe the girls, and hear their conversations, what I longed for most was the chance to delve really deeply into the psyche of their very different personalities: Anne, mature and serious, Elizabeth, the prettiest, Hester who would prefer to be male, Grace, the shy one, and Mary, who is still a whimsical child. This promises such rich potential territory, particularly the interplay between five very different sisters, but I felt it was left a little unexplored. That said, I enjoyed THE HOUNDING, and the ending was a genuine surprise. For more reviews of recent books, scroll down and click on the arrow below.

THE HOUNDING by Xenobe Purvis (Penguin, £9.99)