The Storyteller

What kind of man can drive women to murder? Meet Darling Jim, a stranger who rolls into Castletownbere, County Cork on his red, 1950 Vincent Comet motorcycle. Jim, whose amber, wolf-like eyes, languorous gait, and hypnotic voice cast a spell over men and women alike. He comes to life in a pair of diaries, written by Fiona and Róisín Walsh, sisters who were imprisoned and slowly poisoned by their Aunt Moira.

Fiona’s diary is found by Niall, a young postal worker who sketches comics when his boss isn’t around. One quiet evening he is drawn to the dead-letter bin, where he opens a package that will change his life forever.

Fiona Walsh and her two sisters, Róisín and Aoife, were orphaned when a fire claimed their parents’ lives. They were raised by their Aunt Moira, and they continue to meet her once a week for dinner.

When Fiona first meets Jim on his motorcycle she knows he is trouble, but she is attracted to him. She sees him later that evening in a pub, when he announces to all that he has been “bid, in the ageless storytelling tradition of the seanchaí, to favor you all with a tale of love, of danger, and of sorrow.” He enraptures his audience with a story of an ancient castle, two brothers, murder, lust, and wolves.

Fiona begins to suspect that Jim is responsible for several recent murders of young women, but cannot convince anyone else, so thoroughly has he charmed the locals. He courts her Aunt Moira, who is totally besotted and transformed by love, and the Walsh sisters endure him for their aunt’s sake. After Jim brutally rapes Aoife, the three sisters plot their revenge.

When he finishes the diary Niall is so shaken, he heads west to learn what happened to Jim. The diary revealed that a third person had been imprisoned in Moira’s home but escaped. Was it Aoife? Did she survive?

Niall’s journey to the truth is full of risks, and not a few coincidences. He acquires Róisín’s diary which reveals more of the story, and he stumbles upon a secret that echoes Jim’s tales. I found the book satisfying and gripping, in a gothic, Grimm Brothers kind of way.

Darling Jim, by Christian Moerk, can be reserved here. It is also available as an audiobook from Library2Go.