Jo Walton’s Farthing has been waiting for quite a few months to be picked up, but once I did, I couldn’t put it down…
drey’s thoughts:
Farthing set in a 1949 England where Germany has won the war across the Channel, and the title refers to – among other things – a set of upper-crust English families whose pride is in their “massaging,” if you will, of the English government. The daughter of one of the Farthing set, Lucy Kahn expected things to be a little different when she marries her love, David, who happens to be Jewish. But she doesn’t expect this…
This is a house party, one they’re hastily invited to, one where someone turns up dead, one where the victim has proposed anti-Semitic measures. This is a setting that looks and smells like someone’s setting up David for a fall – and a big one at that, because the current environment is certainly not friendly to Jews. So what’s a loving wife to do?
Lucy is bewildered and confused by all that’s going on, especially once she figures out the score. She does her best to help the detectives investigating the murder, because she wants to make sure they know she thinks someone’s setting David up. And if it had been anyone investigating other than Inspector Carmichael, she’d be right to worry…
I liked Farthing‘s story, plot, and characters. The whodunnit has the detectives and Lucy running in circles – and me too, a bit – because there are so many prospects for the guilty party, from the deceased’s widow to Lucy’s mother. Walton keeps your attention swiveling between Lucy’s interactions – with her husband, her parents, and the house servants – and Inspector Carmichael’s musings and suspicions. The setting itself is a fresh what-could-have-been. The only issue I have with Farthing is its ending. I wanted something a little more nicely wrapped-up (though I’m not usually one who loves epilogues), and Farthing leaves us guessing just a teensy bit as to whether ______ gets ________. No, I’m not spoiling it for you. Read it for yourselves! 
(Notice how I wasn’t mean enough to add a “muahahahahaha” at the end there? Yes, I’m in a good mood…)
drey’s rating: Pick it up!
Title: Farthing
Author: Jo Walton
ISBN-13: 9780765323132
Paperback: 316 pages
Publisher: Tor, 2013 (reprint)
Purchase at IndieBound, Amazon, The Book Depository
Source: Tor
Have you read Farthing? What did you think?
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