He was paying her to spy, but he must realise that, more than the money, Nora wanted to hear she was indistinguishable from the Icon. I've missed you being her. It was a victory to hear him say it. It made her want to cry. [loc. 401]
On a cold night in February 1929, Nora Čapek checks into the Regent Hotel in Birmingham under a pseudonym. She's there to follow opera singer Berenice Oxbow, who's married to Nora's fellow psychoanalyst Leo Cadieux, and report back to Leo. Nora has a unique gift: she recalls everything she hears, and can repeat every word she's ever heard, verbatim, in the style it was first spoken. "Because of this she saw herself as truthful." But she has a number of secrets to conceal, not least her own nature. On the other hand, Leo has convinced her that her memories of an unsettling childhood in an English forest, some time before the First World War, cannot possibly be real. They are, he asserts, fantasies rooted in her difficult relationship with her mother. Only gradually do we discover that Leo is wrong, and that Nora's 'fantasies' are the key to her nature.
Nora's not the only one with secrets. A fellow guest, Arthur Crouch, has lived in the hotel for years, claims to know every inch of the building, and says there's a well in the cellar that will bestow forgiveness on any who drinks from it. He seems to know a great deal about the staff, too. And Berenice draws all eyes to herself on her first night in the hotel, when she seems to go into a trance and declares that 'a lady with flowers tattooed on her forearm' is in terrible danger. When she's escorted from the dining hall, Nora returns to her own room to apply panstick to her distinguishing mark, a tattoo of a chrysanthemum surrounded by little pink dots, like nettle rash. It's worth noting that Hokey Pokey, in this instance, is the name of a cocktail made from absinthe and stinging nettles (recipe provided). Arthur treats Nora to several of these.
The shifting relationships between Nora and Arthur, and Nora and Berenice, begin to feel even more claustrophobic when trains to and from the city are cancelled due to a freak snowstorm. And Nora's goal metamorphoses, from listening to -- and 'recording' -- every word Berenice says (or sings), to a desire to know Berenice for herself.
This was an original, and extremely atmospheric, horror novel: beautifully written with considerable psychological depth, and revealing its secrets with tantalising langour. It's a love story, a story of professional rivalry, a tale of the supernatural: I liked it very much.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK publication date is 8th June 2023
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