Enjoyable gothic with sounds in the night,
mysterious statues that move, creepy housekeepers and a dark & brooding husband itching to reclaim notoriety for his family name.
I was disappointed a bit in the ending. It was over too quickly to be believable.
I would read more from this author.

QUOTE: “There must be a divinity that shapes us. But time also shapes

Deeply unsettling, sinister, and intriguing.

Madeline isn't sure about the match her parents have secured for her but with a reputation to salvage and no other prospects, she doesn't have much of a choice. After a rushed wedding, she is carted off to the Everly house where she will begin her new life as Lucious Everly's wife. But soon after she arrives, strange things begin to happen and Madeline begins to feel that the family, staff, and the house itself are against her. Cut off from all friends or family and haunted by strange noises, unfriendly faces, and locked doors- Madeline tries her best to adjust to her new home. She engages Dr. Everly in discussion about his research and begins assisting him. After a pregnancy that ends in tradgedy, Madeline begins to fade and the strange hauntings and hatreds of the house grow bigger and bigger in her mind- until a discovery makes her think maybe it isn't all in her head. Now on trial for that discovery, Madeline has to count on the help of her friends in order to save her life.

A gothic novel in the grand tradition of Radcliffe, Du Maurier, and the modern gothic novels of B.R. Myers- The Small Museum is a testament to the timelessness of gothic literature and the way "hysterical" women have been treated throughout time. I really loved Madeline's character and how she slowly takes agency over her story. We meet her as a shy young woman and by the end- though weak and imprisoned- she will stop at nothing to make sense of the tragedies around her. Cooksley's writing is both sharp and evocative- deftly creating characters that you love and simultaneously creating an atmosphere that will give you chills.

This book was an entertaining gothic mystery. The house and characters had good spooky vibes. I was curious throughout the book to see how the mystery played out. The story alternated timelines between Madeline's experiences in the house and the present timeline of her trial in which she was accused of murdering her child. I enjoyed that Madeline was interested in drawing and had a naturalist's eye for depicing plants and animals.

Stacey Halls and Anna Mazzola fans are sure to be bewitched by this spine-tingling Gothic chiller by Jody Cooksley: The Small Museum.

London, 1873 and Madeleine Brewster thought that marriage to Dr Lucius Everley, would be the answer to all of her family’s problems. With their reputation in tatters, the Brewster family thought that Madeleine’s marriage to a respectable pillar of the community like Lucius would help them draw a line under the scandals of the past once and for all. But should they trust the man their daughter is marrying so blindly? What secrets is Lucius keeping? And what about his sister Grace? Is she the philanthropic and selfless woman everyone thinks she is? Or is there more to her than meets the eye?

On arrival at her new home, Maddie feels excluded and isolated, but her penchant for drawing could help Lucius out in his museum of ‘small things’ and enable him to make a breakthrough in evolutionary science: a fish with feet. However, the more Maddie learns about Lucius and his sister, the more apprehensive she gets. Finding herself framed for a crime she didn’t commit that will take her straight to the gallows, Maddie is terrified that she will end up a scapegoat for the Everley’s twisted transgressions,

Will her friend Caroline Fairly manage to help her clear her name and save her from certain death? Or is it already far too late?

A dark, terrifying and heart-pounding Victorian thriller with shocking twist after shocking twist, The Small Museum chills and thrills with a beguiling blend of tension, terror and intrigue that will keep readers up all night and have them checking that they’ve double bolted every single door and window in the house.

Jody Cooksley knows how to make her readers jump out of their skin making The Small Museum a must-read for Gothic fiction fans.

Apologies for the delayed reviewing. Overall, I enjoyed those book, particularly the last third. I strugglrd a bit through the first parts, and while partly it may have been my own lack of concentration, I do feel the story itself was missing something to propel it forward- something to keep my attention engaged.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5 stars

The Small Museum fits in perfectly to my current love of gothic thrillers. I wasn't too sure what to except when I picked it up but I ended up loving it.

Madeleine Brewster is hurriedly married to Dr Everley, a stern scientist, after her sister has eloped and thus disgraced the family. Life in her new marital home is restricted, her husband cold, the housekeepers hostile. So far, so Gothic. And then there is the husband’s laboratory/museum, strictly off-limits for her. She’s pining that Dr Everley show some warmth, after all, her husband’s sister, on her frequent unannounced visits, drops many hints about Madeleine future child-bearing. But what is really going on in that house?
You’ll need to read 90% of this story speeding along like a glacier. The last 10% are a hurly-burly of revelations and development, but at that point, I had stopped caring, sadly. Still an okay story but the plot speed needs levelling.

I love Gothic novels and was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, I didn't like it as much as I thought I would.

I found the book confusing with the time jumps and with some of the events in the story. To me, it almost felt like reading a first or second draft of a novel where things still needed to be planned out and storylines needed to be tied up.

For the most part, however, I did like Maddie as a character. Though her relationship with Tizzy seemed very sudden and seemed like she just wanted a connection to the first person who was nice to her.

The ending seemed really rushed and just wrapped up too nicely for my liking.

The fact I found this book difficult to read is a testament to how good it is. Jody Cooksley does a fantastic job at creating a taught, claustrophobic atmosphere that's heavy with menace. I liked the dual timeline format (a murder trial acting as a framing device for the story of an aspiring scientific illustrator trying to make the best of an unwanted marriage to the distant Dr Everley.)

I thought the reintroduction of a key character near the end felt slightly oddly paced after sporadic hints at her existence and I would have liked her to be brought in to the narrative earlier. Other than that, I thought that story unfolded very naturally. The thing that struck me most was the feeling of the protagonist being trapped and vulnerable from all sides.

*SPOILER*
The description for "The Small Library" sounded right up my alley, a chilling historical fiction, a small museum filled with natural curiosities, a dark secret? Sign me up! However, what this book was missing was a MAJOR trigger warning for infant death. It's revealed pretty early on that there is at least one (the crux of the trial that they flash to), so it wouldn't have been a spoiler to add that and, honestly, I often ignore spoiler warnings anyway, so maybe I would have still read it..... But at least then I could have blamed myself for reading it and not felt blindsided by, not just the fact that there is infant death, but the horrific descriptions and gaslighting of the newly postpartum.
The book had an interesting premise, was written well, definitely had the creep factor... Unfortunately, the big mystery just happened to be something that I struggle to read. It did have a little bit of a YA feel, so maybe I'm not the intended audience.

Madeleine Brewster, a young woman who prefers being outside in nature, drawing, and running around, is married off to Dr. Lucius Everley, ten years her elder. The marriage is seen as a way to rehabilitate the Brewster reputation. Madeleine's older sister Rebecca caused a scandal some years earlier when she left the family for a man. The Brewster family's fortunes dwindled when Madeleine's father, a doctor, lost numerous patients, and her mother was spurned by their righteous neighbours.

Maddie arrives in her new home, and immediately feels overwhelmed by the personality of Lucius' sister Grace, and deeply unwelcome by the Barkers, the married couple who have served the Everley family for many years. Every attempt Maddie makes to take control of her household is thwarted by the domineering Grace and unpleasant and dismissive Mrs. Barker. Maddie begins hearing voices and noises at night, while Lucius barely registers that she now lives with him, spending nights with his scientific club cronies. Lucius is convinced that there is a link somewhere in Earth's past where fish transformed into legged beasts, and he is eager to find it. Maddie tries to connect with Lucius through science, and her skill at illustration, offering to draw anatomical structures to support his research and writings.

Maddie manages to make a friend, a former governess, Caroline, whose father and the Everley patriarch were scientific rivals. But there is also a rumour that the Everley patriarch committed crimes to procure dead bodies for his medical work, and Grace is adamant that Lucius' eventual discoveries will help redeem the Everley name.

Caroline becomes a good friend, but she does not know that Maddie is living in an ever-tightening prison, where no matter what she says or does, she is gaslighted by the Barkers and the Everleys, with Lucius convincing her that she is nervous and that she must submit to a doctor's questions. The sympathetic Maddie is completely unprepared for the manipulations she suffers, but is gradually aware and canny enough to realize that she must become increasingly careful in how she behaves, knowing that it would be so easy for the Everleys to send her to an asylum.

Author Jody Cooksley gives us a dual timeline narrative, one where we discover all of the above, and the other, where Maddie is on trial for allegedly murdering her baby. Caroline watches from the gallery, desperate to help Maddie before she is convicted and hanged.


This book was just dripping with atmosphere. The Everley home feels oppressive and frightening, and the people surrounding Maddie in the house start as somewhat controlling, and grow increasingly malevolent as the story progresses. We know that Maddie is naïve and hopeful at the start of her marriage, but the insidiousness of the Everleys constantly questioning her behaviour and mental health negatively affect Maddie.

The story begins with Maddie's family using her for their own ends, then sending her to strangers who use her even more badly, to the extent that Maddie is arrested for something we all know she's completely unable to have done, as we've been on the journey of her horrible marriage with her.

I can see the comparison to Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca" with Grace and Mrs. Barker together reminiscent of Mrs. Danvers, but this book had a whole other level of awful, cloaked as Lucius' dubious scientific inquiries. The obsession with reputation causes no end of harm to many people in this dark and claustrophobic story that I could not put down. There are some pretty awful things that happen over the course of this story, including the harming of animals, and the author builds such tension, discomfort and fear in this wonderfully gothic story.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Allison & Busby for this ARC in exchange for my review.

The Small Museum by Jody Cooksley is a take on the gothic horror genre, one I do not often venture into. Overall, I enjoyed the book's writing style and the pacing. I felt that Maddy ultimately figuring out Lucius' and his sister's plot towards the end of the book felt rushed and not as thought out especially given the long setup. shows just what women had to suffer in an era that believed the husband instead of the wife - an era when the diagnosis of "hysteria" covered everything when you wanted to get rid of an inconvenient woman.

Thank you NetGalley for an early copy of this book for an honest review.

London, 1873. Madeleine Brewster's marriage to Dr Lucius Everley was meant to be the solution to her family's sullied reputation. After all, Lucius is a well-respected collector of natural curiosities. His 'Small Museum' of bones and specimens in jars is his pride and joy, although firmly kept under lock and key. His sister Grace's philanthropic work with fallen women is also highly laudable. However, Maddie soon finds herself unwelcome in what is meant to be her new home. The more she learns about both Lucius and Grace, the more she suspects that unimaginable horrors lie behind their polished reputations. Framed for a crime that would take her to the gallows and leave the Everleys free to continue their dark schemes, Maddie’s only hope is her friend Caroline. She will do anything to prove Maddie’s innocence before the trial reaches its fatal conclusion. This is a gripping, dark gothic mystery. The story unfolds slowly but is told in a frightening way that makes you fear for Maddie as it progresses. I look forward to more from this author.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

I absolutely adore anything set in a gothic Victorian setting. This story ticked all the boxes for me. Dark, chilling, atmospheric and macabre..

It had me hooked, creepy at times but overall an excellent book. I loved Maddie and the struggles she had to overcome with her arranged marriage to an important medical man who keeps a "small museum" of bones. Unfortunately, this marriage is not a happy one and Maddie's sister in law Grace does not like the new mistress of the house and plots to make sure she is out of the picture for good!

Some may find some of the themes distressing but anyone who likes a book that keeps you on edge will love this.

The Small Museum opens with Madeleine Brewster’s marriage to Dr Lucius Everley, which is a cold, strange affair, and doesn’t appear to augur well for their future happiness. We only see it from Maddie’s perspective but she seems to have been wrenched out of her lovely rural home in Cheshire and suddenly transplanted to London. Clearly no great love match—on either side—Madeleine Brewster is being sacrificed to salvage her family’s good name after a loss of reputation. Married off to a London doctor by her own Cheshire doctor’s family at short notice, she is offered up in order to save the rest of the family by marrying well.

If the match doesn’t get off to an auspicious start, the next chapter only confirms that things quickly go from bad to worse for Maddie. She finds herself accused of a most heinous crime and the evidence against her appears to be compelling. How it has come to this and whether she can challenge it at all is told throughout the rest of the book, as it flicks back and forth between the trial and the marriage that brought us here.

And at this point I have to tell you to clear your diary until you’ve finished The Small Museum because I was hard-pressed to put it down. I read it in only two sittings because I had to know if we were lulled into trusting Maddie from the first chapter or if darker forces were at play here. I wasn’t disappointed but had no idea how deliciously dark and gothic it would get. Jody Cooksley takes us on a brutally menacing tour of a Victorian marriage and shows us how much events can get twisted to fit someone else’s truly hideous agenda.

There are some terrific characters in The Small Museum: the incredibly close doctor and his sister, who both work with fallen women for far more than philanthropic reasons; the Barkers, the housekeeper and her husband pairing, who rule the household as if Old Doctor Everley is still alive and guard their domain incredibly well; and Maddie, who is experiencing her first time away from home, and marriage, with little advice or guidance, while feeling incredibly isolated. She finds some allies along the way in Caroline and Tizzy but can they save her from her current ordeal when she appears to offer up so little resistance? Has she been worn down into submission or did she commit the horrific act she’s accused of?

Jody Cooksley has written a truly menacing and macabre story of a marriage; a dangerously Gothic tale of a young woman who is handed off to people who carry the outward appearance of respectability but whose extra-curricular activities in The Small Museum will force them into deliciously dark dealings and nefarious practices. Will Maddie survive the ordeal or become yet another victim to it? I can only recommend you read this one to find out. It’s deeply disturbing and as gratifying as it promises. I loved this book.

An interesting, dark gothic mystery told between switching narratives. One where a young newly married woman, Maddy, adapts to her new life in London and the oddities of her husband. The other where Maddy is on trial... For what, we don't find out straightaway as the story unravels. It captures the Victorian era very well but it's dark at times that may be a little difficult to stomach.

The story begins with Madeleine (Maddie) marrying Dr Lucius Everley for the sake of her family. He is wealthy and Madeleine is very young and innocent but she knows what to expect on her wedding night but this does not happen.

Her own family has been shamed by Maddie’s sister and Lucius’s sister Grace is really influential in the life of her brothers life and his home.

This is fantastically gothic novel, Maddie soon finds out that she is in a unwelcoming environment. The housekeeper Mrs Barker is cold and unfriendly and when she visits the library she is horrified at the lack of poetry and prose. Instead she is faced with books about poisons and death.

I felt really sad for Maddie in a hostile situation with a husband that has no time for her. I wondered why he had married her.

Grace also lives apart from her own husband who is away in India she is alone with her children who appear also to be unconventional.

Maddie has a glimmer of hope in her sad world, which is her friend Caroline and their friendship is a lifeline to Maddie in more ways than one.

Unfortunately things do not improve for Maddie as life in Everley house seems destined to be an eternal struggle

There is a second thread to the book which I am not going to divulge about as I think it may give away spoilers.

This is a really dark, unsettling and at times brutal it reminded me of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier with the awful Mrs Barker the housekeeper. This is such an engrossing read I loved it!

The Small Museum

A shiver thrilled my spine at the thought of what might be contained in collections to be kept away from ordinary eyes...

London, 1873. Madeleine Brewster's marriage to Dr Lucius Everley was meant to be the solution to her family's sullied reputation. After all, Lucius is a well-respected collector of natural curiosities. His 'Small Museum' of bones and specimens in jars is his pride and joy, although firmly kept under lock and key. His sister Grace's philanthropic work with fallen women is also highly laudable.
However, Maddie soon finds herself unwelcome in what is meant to be her new home. The more she learns about both Lucius and Grace, the more she suspects that unimaginable horrors lie behind their polished reputations.
Framed for a crime that would take her to the gallows and leave the Everleys free to continue their dark schemes, Maddie’s only hope is her friend Caroline. She will do anything to prove Maddie’s innocence before the trial reaches its fatal conclusion.

I have two favourite genres in novels, historical and crime fiction, and here Jody Cooksley has combined the two in his compelling novel. Victorian London 1873, Madeleine Brewster, the daughter of a doctor, is courted by Dr. Lucius Everly a man seemingly intent on finding the missing link that will prove the evolutionary step between fish and mammals. He collects fossils and curiosities at his London home, hidden away in his ‘Small Museum’. His sister Grace undertakes work with fallen women at a house called The Evergreens which is held in high regard.
Madeleine accepts his proposal, imagining her life as a doctor’s wife will be similar to that of her mother and father. However, when she reaches her new home, life is very different to what she expected. She feels unwelcome in her new home, with housekeeper and gardener Mr and Mrs Barker seemingly in charge. There is no space for her to organise or manage her own house with them still following the routine of Lucius’s parents. If it isn’t the Barkers, her sister-in-law Grace drops in unannounced and chooses the drapes or orders tea as if she is the mistress of the house, despite having her own. Having dreaded the wedding night, he begs her forgiveness for his tiredness and departs to his own bedroom. Despite their reputations, Madeleine starts to suspect Lucius and Grace of unimaginable horrors. She hears a baby’s cry in the night, her husband arguing with his sister and items seem to appear and disappear from her room with alarming regularity. Despite trying to help her husband in his work and fitting in with the Barker’s schedule, Madeleine finds herself labelled as ‘nervous’ and then framed for the most terrible of crimes. A crime she did not commit. As she faces a trial Madeleine’s only hope is her friend Caroline, but can she prove her friend’s innocence before she is hanged?

This was an absolute cracker of a gothic mystery with a heroine who is in a terrible catch 22; either shut-up and be complicit in something horrific, or keep asking questions and be labelled mad by her in-laws. She is utterly powerless, but tries everything within her limited options to improve her situation. Madeleine is intelligent and no one could say she hasn’t tried in her marriage. When finally Lucius does come to her room it is a perfunctory act where she might as well have been an inanimate object. She tries to get used to these new couplings but there is certainly no love or even tenderness in it. The outcome is further tragedy for Madeleine and a means for Lucius to control her movements even further and an excuse for their nightly encounters to stop. Once physically recovered, she tries to use the only gift she has, her ability to draw in a style that would work for scientific illustrations. She is then let into Lucius’s small museum, a veritable treasure trove of nature’s oddities and anomalies, but also bleached bones of various different creatures that he hopes will prove his theory that fish developed into birds and mammals. He is gratified that Madeleine has a strong stomach, able to converse freely about the best ways of bleaching bone. He has lost many a servant girl who accidentally discovered the museum or his workshop where he prepares the animals whose bones he uses. They embark on a trip to Dorset together where he is showing his latest finds to his peers and Madeleine hopes they will enjoy combing the beach for fossils and she can do some more sketching. However, she has underestimated Lucius’s fanaticism about his theory and the terrible lengths he will go to in order to prove it.

The author brings all of these strands together beautifully, the glimpses into the past finally catching up with the present and Madeleine’s terrifying predicament. Will she be found guilty of infanticide? Caroline is desperately trying to uncover the truth and proves herself to be an incredibly loyal friend. I had so many questions as the book neared it’s end and the tension was riveting. Was Madeleine really seeing her sister Rebecca in the streets around Evergreens? Were items genuinely disappearing and appearing in her room? Was she sane or had she succumbed to mental illness? What were the noises in the house at night and can she really hear a baby crying? In fact the answers involved new maid Tizzy, a down to earth girl who’d had her baby at Evergreens and it was a light bulb moment! Everything round me disappeared as the first glimmer of truth came to light. I had to finish this book right now! I loved the elements of feminist thinking that were brought into the text including the use of Christina Rosetti’s poem ‘Goblin Market’ which tells of men who will take away and ruin any young maiden who isn’t on her guard:

‘Dear you should not stay so late Twilight is not good for maidens; Should not loiter in the glen In the haunts of goblin men. ‘Goblin Market’, Christina Rosetti, 1862

Rossetti worked as a volunteer in a religious house helping ‘fallen women’ for eleven years, women like Tizzy and Madeleine’s sister Rebecca. Although Rebecca is seen as the fallen woman by respectable people, Madeleine realises that her marriage simply gives her a mask of respectability. It does not mean they are happy, in fact it simply disguises what is truly going on behind closed doors. She knows it would take irrefutable evidence to save her and this is why she is in utter despair during her trial. She can’t imagine anyone breaking through that polite veneer of respectability to help her, because they risk their own reputation. Yet she needs someone respectable to vouch for her because housemaids and fallen women hold no power. Caroline is a liminal person in this respect, she is accepted in society as the daughter and wife of doctors, but her father and Ambrose are psychiatrists, dismissed as ‘mind benders’ by Lucius and this sets them apart. They’re respectable enough to be believed but not so restricted by their standing in society that they daren’t speak up. When Caroline first sees marks on Madeleine’s wrists she knows where she’s seen them before, on Ambrose’s recovering patients; ‘they were women too’. I loved Madeleine’s relationship with Tizzy too, they clicked immediately and talked with a freedom Madeleine’s never had before. She is her one friend in a house where the wife’s place is to keep quiet and only appear when needed. All in all, this is a really well written and researched novel with all the ingredients I love in an historical novel: a fantastic sense of time and place; strong female characters that break through the Victorian ‘Angel in the House’ stereotype; those Gothic elements to bring a sense of mystery. Added to this are the compelling twists and turns of crime fiction. What a debut this is.

A lovely twisty gothic dark book, think Gaslight, Rebecca, Crimson Peak.
1873 Maddie is suddenly married off to a respectable Dr. to save her family's reputation, quickly moved to their city from the country life she loved.
While trying to learn the societal and marriage ropes, things start to fall apart, but is it all in Maddie's head?
If you love Victorian gothic novels or any psychological thrillers, you'll adore this new novel by Jody Cooksley.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC

The author has created a ‘small museum’ of her own, in this case a literary one, by bringing together all the elements you could wish for in a Victorian age historical mystery. In particular, it incorporates the macabre interest in the collection and display of anatomical curiosities as well as more outlandish theories about the evolution of species circulating at the time.

Poor Maddie, married off to Lucius in order to try to restore her family’s social standing following the ‘disgrace of her sister Rebecca, is pretty much a lamb to the slaughter. She cannot understand Lucius’ coldness towards her nor the fact that she is kept pretty much a prisoner in her new home which is run with ruthless efficiency by housekeeper, Mrs Barker. Lucius is invariably absent, either visiting patients or attending scientific meetings, so Maddie’s is a lonely existence, made worse by unsettling little things, such as the unexplained rearrangement of objects or the strange sounds she hears in the night. Could it be her imagination? Everyone seems anxious to convince her it is. Have a cup of cocoa and an early night, dear…

Maddie makes touching attempts to show interest in Lucius’s work in the hope of gaining his attention but it’s only when her artistic skill seems likely to assist his work that she gains a modicum of value in his eyes. Unfortunately, it will be a long time until she discovers what her real value to him is, and when she – and the reader – does, it’s positively shocking. Maddie badly needs a friend and Caroline Fairly proves a particularly steadfast one, along with Maddie’s maid, Tizzy, who risks her own wellbeing if she is discovered.

The book has a generous role call of villains. I’d single out Lucius’s sister, Grace, whose knack for gliding into rooms unexpectedly reminded me of Mrs Danvers in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. She willingly goes along with the gaslighting of Maddie whilst at the same time cultivating an air of philanthropy through her involvement in a home for fallen women (reminiscent of the establishment in Stacey Halls’s The Household). Then there are the Barkers, the Eversleys’ loyal retainers, a persistent malign prescence and whom, one suspects, know all the family’s dirty secrets. And, of course, there’s Lucius himself who for a long time seems to be just a coldly obsessive man determined to prove a theory he has developed. But what lengths will he go to in pursuit of that proof?

I particularly liked the use of chapter headings that describe some of the often quite macabre ‘curiosities’ in Lucius’s collection and the way the author subtly insinuated some of these into the story. I was fascinated to learn that some were inspired by actual exhibits in the Hunterian Museum in London.

The Small Museum is a chilling and immersive historical mystery generously infused with elements of Gothic fiction.