I know I’ve seen Michel Faber’s books on somebody’s sidebar so when I saw this book at my local library recently I thought I’d give him a go. This is a novella with just 120 pages and I read it all in one sitting. Mind you I nearly gave up on it completely before I got to the bottom of the first page. I’ve been reading a lot of comfort books over the past few months and I’ve sort of got used to nothing really nasty happening in books. The beginning of this one seemed to me to be positively brutal. Anyway, I gritted my teeth and carried on, and I’m glad that I did.

The story is set in Whitby, which is a place that I really like, so that was a plus. Life has given Sian a good few kicks in the teeth in the past but now she is part of a team conducting an archaeological dig at Whitby Abbey. On her way to work she spies a good looking man jogging with a gorgeous dog by his side. The dog is vanilla and caramel coloured and Sian wants it. In fact she’s not sure which she’s attracted to most, dog or man. The dog turns out to be a Finnish Lapphund called Hadrian. They look like a cross between a husky and a wolf.

The story is a good mixture of thriller, romance and historical sleuthing and for me there were a few real surprises along the way. It definitely couldn’t be called predictable. I’ll read more by Michel Faber.

Mind you, I’m sure my eyes rolled when I realised that there was an archaeological dig involved because I had a horrible feeling that that had been added to the story purely because archaeology is so popular in Britain. I thought to myself – this is going to be the book equivalent to that Rosemary and Thyme thing on TV which was obviously thought up because mystery/crime and gardening are perrenial favourites amongst Brits. But have no fear, it’s far more than that!