How do you solve a murder when everyone thinks you’re guilty?

Marjorie Crowe lives in Kilgoyne, Scotland. The locals put her age at somewhere between 55 and 70. They think she’s divorced or a lifelong spinster; that she used to be a librarian, a pharmacist, or a witch. They think she’s lonely, or ill, or maybe just plain rude. For the most part, they leave her be.

But one day, everything changes.

Local teenager Charlie McKee is found hanging in the woods, and Marjorie is the first one to see his body. When what she saw turns out to be impossible, the police have their doubts. And when another young person goes missing, the tide of suspicion turns on her.

Is Marjorie the monster, or the victim? And how far will she go to fight for her name?

I received a review copy from the publishers, Hodder & Soughton, through Netgalley

Here it is. The high-bar to which all other books will need to aspire to match through 2024. When I tell you I started my reading this year with a stone cold banger of a book it’s no exaggeration. The Trials of Marjorie Crowe will introduce you to one of the most memorable lead characters you’re likely to encounter for many months to come and her story will live with you just as long. I adored this book.

Marjorie Crowe is a witch. Not the halloween-esk, pointy hat, bubbling cauldron type of witch but a woman who’s learnt from her predecessors which plants and flowers can have medicinal benefits, the roots which will help make a lotion or the oils which could make a salve. She lives in an old cottage in a quiet village in central Scotland. Naturally the other villagers, particularly the teenagers, consider Marjorie a figure they can ridicule and easily dismiss but Marjorie doesn’t care too much about wagging tongues, those that came before her faced bigger dangers than being mocked by their neighbours (wirriet and burnt) and she goes on with her day and follows her routine – like clockwork.

Each day Marjorie takes the same walk around the village of Kilgoyne, she treads the same paths, turns the same corners and passes directly through the local pub (not stopping). Every. Single. Day. It drives the publican crazy and it further adds to the rididule Marjorie exposes herself to but Marjorie is a creature of habit. One day, however, something is going to happen during Marjorie’s walk which will shake her to her core. Deep in the woods Marjorie finds a local teenager, Charlie McKee, hanging in a clearing. Marjorie heads home – stunned and incommunicative – she doesn’t raise the alarm and it is only when Charlie’s body is discovered several hours later that people start to question why Marjorie didn’t tell anyone of what she saw until it was far, far too late.

The villagers of Kilgoyne will shun and turn on their peculiar neighbour. But for the reader there’s a small amount of clarification dripped into the story by C.S. Robertson. When Marjorie speaks with the police about what she saw when she found Charlie it seems there were two impossibilities – one is that someone else had seen Charlie, alive and well, an hour later than Majrorie saw his body. The second impossibility was who was beside Charlie in the woods when she saw his hanged body.

As I read I was sure Marjorie was always truthful about what she had seen. This is a woman of utter conviction and she knew she was right. Until the point came when Marjorie herself began to doubt what she’d seen. How could she be mistaken? What of the unexplained coincidence of markings appearing on a tree which mirrored an identical mark that appeared when another teenager vanished from the village around two decades earlier? More mysteries and more dangers, small villages are always a haven for secrets and C.S. Robertson makes sure Kilgoyne is packed with unanswered questions.

Events in Kilgoyne escalate as another teenager disappears and Marjorie finds herself under increasing pressure and scrutiny. She’s done nothing wrong (that she sees) but the court of public opinion is very much against her – the real trial of Marjorie Crowe appears to be a trial over social media, in the streets by her home and in the heads and hearts of her neighbours. Will Marjorie be strong enough to withstand the pressure of all the negative attention and what happens when emboldened mobs decide they can take matters into their own hands.

There is so much to this story that I simply cannot do it justice in such a short space. This is a book crying out to be your next pick at your local bookgroup, it needs discussed (only with people who know what happens) and the impact it had on me will last for quite some time. Stellar reading – grab this book!

The Trials of Marjorie Crowe releases on 18 January 2024 in hardback, digital and audiobook format.  You can get your copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-trials-of-marjorie-crowe/c-s-robertson/9781529367690