The Formidable Miss Cassidy - Meihan Boey

I'm back from Shetland and feeling low about it. We had a fabulous couple of very busy weeks and really weren't ready to come back to work yet. So far the adjustment has been hard even with the extra time on the ferry and then stopping in the borders on the way back. Maybe not helped by the borders being another beloved area which deserved more time. Work today was overwhelming, not because of the work itself but more the sheer number of people. That I'm listening to football chants carried to me on the wind and not the actual wind, birds, or sheep is another disconnect that I can't quite reconcile yet. 

The formidable Miss Cassidy wouldn't give into this sort of melancholy, she'd shake herself down and sort something out and as that's hardly the worst example to follow she's where I'll start. I really liked this book which i read a good few weeks ago as a proof. It's out in hardback now and if any of you are in the mood for a reasonably cosy fantasy with a bit of an edge I highly recommend it. The blurb on my copy likens the heroine to part Mary Poppins and part Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Miss Cassidy is like neither of these characters, and yet it's not the worst description. It does at least capture something of the vibe of the book. 

Miss Cassidy arrives in Singapore in 1890 to be a governess for the listless child of a merchant who has lost the rest of his family to tropical disease. She soon realises that there is something supernatural haunting the remaining family and takes steps to deal with it. The first problem solved she moves on to another family and a more worrying creature, and in the process, the reader finds out more about Miss Cassidy who is as enigmatic as she is formidable.  

The blurb also promises Magic, Romance and Mystery. Do not be taken in by the promise of romance. There's an intriguing relationship that promises to develop further in subsequent books but here it's a deep friendship and not more. the romance is along the Travis Baldree lines of Bookshops and Bonedust or Legends and Latte's - and all the better for it. 

What really makes this book special though is the way that Meihan Boey has taken her Singaporean/ southeast asian folklore and mixed it up with the myths and legends of her Scottish husband. If I have this right the novel was originally published in English, and it's Pushkin who have the UK rights. Hopefully this will  be successful enough that we get the next two books here. The mixing of traditions is both unexpected and entirely successful. Meihan brings her melting pot Singapore to glorious life evoking flavour and smell along with an oppressive heat and all shot through with an affection for home that is entirely beguiling.

Miss Cassidy is a curious visitor eager to learn about her new home and in that spirit makes friends wherever she goes. It's a charming book with enough of an edge to avoid complacency in the reader - maybe more Buffy than Mary Poppins in that respect, though it's kinder to its monsters with a  hint of sympathy for the way they come into being that begs the question of who or what is monstrous first.