Orphaned as a young child, Mirin O’Malley has been brought up by her grandparents on their isolated, rambling estate Hob’s Hallow. Long ago her family prospered due to a deal struck with the mer, the terrifying creatures who live in the depths of the sea: safety for their merchant ships in return for a child of each generation. But for many years the family have been unable to keep their side of the bargain and their fortunes have suffered as a result. When Mirin’s grandfather dies, her grandmother puts in train a plan to restore their glory – but at the price of Mirin’s freedom. Finding amongst her grandfather’s papers evidence that her parents may still be alive, Mirin is determined to escape and discover the truth about her origins. This takes her on a treacherous journey to Blackwater, the estate her parents built when they fled Hob’s Hallow, but on arrival Mirin finds the estate in decline and her ‘Uncle Edward’ in charge: where are her parents, and who is this Edward Elliott really?

‘All The Mumurung Bones’ is a beautifully written tale told from the perspective of Mirin O’Malley, a young woman finding and claiming her place in a world that wants only to use her as currency to pay an ancient debt and breeding stock to preserve a bloodline. It draws on Celtic myths and aspects of fairytales but, at its heart, it’s a story driven by a pragmatic understanding of the nature of power and the price to be paid for it. Triumph here won’t come from a Fairy Godmother waving a wand or a handsome prince riding to the rescue but by from the strength of Marin’s will and the sharpness of her wits.

Like many of Angela Slatter’s stories, ‘All The Murmuring Bones’ is set in the Sourdough Universe that I first encountered in her wonderful novella, ‘Of Sorrow And Such‘ about how women survive in a misogynistic world. I quickly found myself immersed in this richly imagined world yet it wasn’t the world that fascinated me but Mirin. She’s young, isolated and in mourning for the death of the grandfather who raised her. What shone through was her self-awareness, her pragmatism and her deep yearning for more in life than her grandmother believes she is destined to have. I was, of course, immediately completely on her side in her struggle not to live down to her grandmother’s expectations.

‘All The Murmuring Bones‘ is a richly textured story that’s carried as much by Mirin’s character as it is by the twisty plot and the gothic environment. Although the Sourdough Universe is not our world but one sown with magic and popluated with strange things, the people in it feel real in terms of how they hate, how they love and what they long for. A strong theme in the book is how dynastic stories shape the lusts and twist the lives of each generation, trapping rather than freeing them, making them characters in a play they didn’t write. What makes Mirin so engaging is the combination of her determination to break free of the received narrative by writing her own script and her acceptance that she may get blood on her hands from time to time.

I enjoyed the way Celtic fairy tales were woven into the story not as fantasy but as guides to dealing with the beings alive and dead that Marin encounters. The middle section of the book had the feel of a quest to it but not in the video game ‘win points and level up‘ way but more as life lived for a while with a goal much longed for but not well understood.

The last third of the book was filled with threat, betrayal and violence that kept me turning the pages eagerly. The ending wasn’t what I expected but it fitted Mirin’s character perfectly.

‘All The Murmuring Bones’ was a very satisfying stand-alone fantasy that I highly recommend. I suggest listening to the audiobook version if you can. Aoife McMahon’s narration does justice to the lilt of the language and helps Mirin’s character to shine through.