The Book of Hidden Wonders: 2020’s most haunting and magical literary fiction debut novel about a young woman’s search for the truth

The Book Of Hidden Wonders is the first novel by British author, Polly Crosby. At nearly nine, after some years of seemingly aimless roaming, Romilly Kemp has recently settled with her dad in a dilapidated old farmhouse, Braër, surrounded by a moat. Tobias Kemp is an artist, formerly teaching at the University, now trying to make a living by painting. Romilly's mother, Meg has been absent since she was four.

Romilly's attic room is shared with her newly arrived Siamese kitten, Captain Montgomery of the Second Regiment, to be included in paintings Tobias will create of his daughter. Under the sloping roof, Dad tells wonderful bedtime stories; sometimes Romilly has fleeting memories of Meg, "a pair of smooth, delicate hands holding onto mine, sharp red nails gripping my skin painfully, a glittering diamond ring crackling with light."

While Tobias is creatively engaged, Romilly amuses herself in the grounds, carefully avoiding the moat, and discovers a friend, a cheeky, daring boy/girl named Stacey. They get up to plenty of mischief, some of it quite dangerous, while Dad turns Romilly into the star of a series of books. Romilly quickly learns that fame has its drawbacks: treasure hunters armed with spades convinced that Tobias Kemp has filled the Romilly books with clues, making her virtually a prisoner inside Braër.

It is true: Tobias Kemp has filled the Romilly books with clues but, he tells her, they are for her alone, and not all treasure is gold or precious stones. The clues are cryptic, and Romilly doesn't even know what she's looking for when, eventually, she does start looking.

Crosby saddles her protagonist with a loving, quirky but erratic father, a mercurial best friend, a damaged mother and a too-late-found grandmother. As the story develops, the reasons for this, and Romilly's apparent immaturity, become clear, but the significance of some elements (eg the circus) do not.

While this ought to be a magical read, and Crosby does manage to tug at the heart-strings a few times, it somehow lacks the connection, repetition and resolution that would thoroughly enchant the reader. Some scenes and characters that seem like they should be relevant to the story turn out to be rather random, and could have been edited for a more pleasing read. A much darker read than the blurb depicts.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Harlequin Australia.