I thought this would be an interesting book to read, and it has its moments. Miss Margery Benson is a teacher at a girl's academy and is the butt of every joke until one day a caricature snaps her last garter. She steels the deputy's lacrosse boots and several other items as she makes her way out of the school and back to her flat.
When Margery was a child, her father showed her a book of insects and animals that were presumed to have existed, but no one had even seen them before. One insect caught her eye and she decided then that she would be the one to find it.
On the day that Margery snapped, she put into motion the series of events that would take her to New Caledonia to find the golden beetle.
Quite a few of the characters in this book are unhinged in one way or another. Mr. Murdic had been a POW during World War II on the island of Burma. His years in the POW camp left him a shell of his former self. Enid Pretty is a woman with secrets and an over-the-top personality that grates on everyone's nerves. These characters detract from the overall appeal of the book for me.
This is the first book I read by Rachel Joyce, and it was definitely an interesting read, though outside my usual genre. It's a four star book.
Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review. The opinions expressed are my own.
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