Jasmyn by Alex Bell
I very rarely get the chance to read a book in one sitting, but once I started this one, there was no choice.
Jasmyn is a young woman whose life is in chaos. She has recently been married, but one day her husband Liam suddenly dies. In her grief, Jasmyn isolates herself from everyone and everything. But there seems to be some mystery involving his twin brother Ben. As she begins to restore order to her life, Jasmyn starts to investigate this undefined strangeness. The investigation leads her to Europe, and the land of fairy tales and enchantments. She uncovers a tale of murder, stolen love and deception. But who can be trusted?
Bell is very skilled at interweaving myth and reality. In his previous novel, he mingled the mythology of angels with the reality of life in a city. Here he is mixing the cultural icons of magic and mythology with the reality of modern life and love. His craftsmanship is superb. The characters remain true and yet when the end is revealed, the reader wonders how on earth they missed all the clues. Probably they were missed because the story itself is so engaging that there isn’t time to stop and wonder about the meaning of all the little inconsistencies of life.
Jasmyn is simply one of the best books that I have read in a very long time.
