I’ll admit I may be the only person on earth who did not love Emma Donoghue’s book club bonanza Room. I don’t know, I just was not a fan, so I was little hesitant when her new book Frog Music popped into my mailbox begging to be reviewed. I loved the title and was willing to give it a try. The good news is it’s a San Francisco treat.
The story is based on a real life murder case that took place in 1876 in San Francisco. The endnotes are also a fascinating read. Anyway, the book kicks off with the main character Blanche Beunon who is a burlesque dancer sitting in her room with her friend Jenny when a bullet is shot through the window and Jenny ends up dead. The remaining pages of the novel tell the story of what happened days before the events and the days following up to the murder with Blanche trying to figure who took out her friend Jenny or could the bullet have been meant for her. The other savory possible suspects are her lover Arthur, his male best friend Ernest, or is it someone from Jennny’s past who doesn’t like the idea of her dressing up as a man.
So you may be asking yourself while reading this review why is this book called Frog Music. I was asking myself this same question. Jenny spent a good part of her days catching frogs to be served up in restaurants throughout the city. She knew what made frogs frogs and what their croaks meant to other frogs. Her past is also something that is makes one wonder who Jenny really was.
While Blanche is looking for Jenny’s murderer there is also a side story of Blanche and her unwanted child named P’tit. P’tit had health issues and Blanche left him at a foster home to be taken care of. When Blanche finds out that it was not a proper home she gets the baby back but he ends up missing to her in another harrowing event. So if looking for the murderer of your friend isn’t enough, Blanche soon needs to find P’tit too.
The novel has song lyrics throughout the story to justify calling it Frog Music. For me, these really add nothing to a novel that is a good old-fashioned atmospheric page tuner. Let’s call those bits of music nothing but kissing a lot of toads before you reach the conclusion of the novel and end up with a princely winner of a book. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
