Gifts and Bones
Gifts and Bones (2007) is the debut novel of the Bea and Mildred Mystery Series. It is an historical mystery novel written by Barbara Murray 1, a Canadian author living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Set in 1902, and published in 2007 by Soames Point Press 2. Newfoundland is home to protagonists Bea, Jean and Mildred, but in later books they also travel afar to places such as Italy. Morse code plays a big role in the first book, while in the second book the characters also use Braille with which to communicate. Paranormal experiences factor heavily into the mysteries.
The communications industry plays a key role in the first novel, Gifts and Bones. Historical backdrops include the first attempt to lay the transatlantic cable in 1857, and also the 1901 success of Guglielmo Marconi at receiving wireless signals from Ireland.
Plot summary
“Were you twelve when the [...] took place?” Mildred finally thinks to ask Brian after he has followed her part of the way home. Night has fallen bringing with it a storm, and they both want to be in the company of family and a nice, warm fire. Brian nods in answer to her question, and then he asks Mildred about her own death. It was centuries ago when her daughter, Sarah, was only eight. “That’s why I didn’t leave, I imagine,” she elaborates. “She was far too little and I loved them far too much.”
Mildred has only just realized what is wrong with Brian Stevens (she admonishes herself for taking so long to figure it out), and we’re already a third of the way through the book. Brian himself knows little about the state he finds himself in; he doesn’t even grasp that he’s dead. He knows something horrible has happened, and in his disturbed state, he fixates on the transatlantic cable of 1857: there’s an answer to his conundrum there somewhere, surely. He finds himself on board the Niagara, or on the beaches of Ireland and Newfoundland — waiting for the cable and helping with the cable, and always, always trying to prevent the cable breaking and falling 2,000 fathoms down to the bottom of the sea. Brian is unable to sort dream from reality or his own memories from those of others. One minute he is laying cable, the next he is in his childhood cave, or discussing [...] in a restaurant with his troubled companion, Morna, or suffering through supper with his relatives, Henry, Penelope and George Stevens.
In 1902, Mildred’s family includes adopted Bea, and Sarah’s descendants: young Jean, and Jean’s mother, Evelyn. Despite the nuisance of having died (she dearly misses her single malt scotch), Mildred would rather not be thought of as a ghost but as something far less fearsome. However, she has no control over the rumours: that MacDonald family a little ways out of town, they’re all a little touched, could swear I’ve seen a ghost up there.
The entire MacDonald family is indeed touched, most especially young Jean, but also her older cousin, Bea, whose nights are fraught with prescient dreams and who, at 18 in 1902, combines precognition with pragmatism and intelligence. Shy, bold and somewhat reckless, she quickly determines that something is amiss with the Stevens’ family. During the day, Bea works at Israel Shulman’s Dry Goods Store on Water Street, and late at night she sometimes visits her friend, Callum, and they drink hot rum and discuss her dreams and his insomnia. After delivering a letter to the lovely Eliza Norton for a customer, Penelope Stevens, Bea is curious to know more. She (and Mildred) read the letter — how could they not after all, wonders Mildred, with both Penelope and Eliza acting so strangely? The letter speaks of a blackmailing conversation that Penelope has overheard.
Enter nasty Cyrus Newton Norton, Eliza’s father. He is a bitter, spiteful man seeking revenge on the Stevens’ family. He believes that he was blamed for breaking Niagara’s cable, and that the person who betrayed him was none other than fellow brakeman, Judson Stevens (Henry’s father; Penelope’s father-in-law). However, Cyrus hasn’t come all the way from England to this “outport on the other side of nowhere” to tell Henry his sad cable story; he has come to inform him that he knows a horrible secret about the Stevens family, and he’ll take money, thank you very much, to keep his mouth shut.
OK. So, who killed Brian? Is it the lecherous Henry as Bea and Mildred both begin to believe? Is it foul-mouthed Cyrus, or even Judson? Subplots run havoc on Bea as she tries to think clearly: Penelope believes she is the reason for Cyrus’s blackmail attempt (she certainly has something to hide: there’s that body she buried in a cellar back in France); Natty, the maid, goes missing; and someone’s out to get George (Penelope and Henry’s son). But the question remains: who killed Brian, and why? Bea interviews old men who used to work on the cable ships, pores over newspapers from the mid-1800s, and plumbs her dreams for answers. But not until little Jean (an expert in Morse Code) reluctantly joins Bea in the Stevens’ dark cellar does Bea finally hear the clue that she will need in order to solve the mystery of Brian: -- --- .-. -. .- / -.- -. --- .-- ...