The Ninth Child

by Sally Magnusson

I enjoy reading historical fiction and I enjoyed this book too, but I did find it a bit hard going. I couldn’t really get in to it. I enjoyed the historical fact about the building of the aqueducts to supply Glasgow with fresh water, to try and stop disease in Glasgow especially in the slums as cholera was rife. However I didn’t like the parts about the faeries as it just didn’t seem to fit in to the story for me.

Isabel Aird is a doctor’s wife based in Glasgow. Her husband feels that he wants to do more than just look after the over privileged in Glasgow. So he becomes the on site doctor looking after all construction workers in the Trossachs. This keeps him very busy, which leaves Isabel alone most of the time until she meets a wife of a construction worker. Who keeps her company and does some chores for her.

Isabel finds herself wandering the hills around Loch Katrine, where she finds herself still coming to terms with loosing 8 babies. On these walks she feels as though her lost children are with her as she wanders around.

Eventually Isabel finds herself pregnant again for the ninth time, but this doesn’t stop her from wandering all over the place. On one occasion she meet a strange man who she strikes up a conversation with. People warn her to stay away from him as they say there is something evil about him.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visit the site and Isabel insists that she is allowed to attend the party. Her husband doesn’t want her to go but he ends up taking her. After Queen Victoria and Prince Albert leave Isabel goes in to labour. She actually ends up using the room the was set up for Queen Victoria.

A few days after the baby is born the strange man that she came to know, turns up in her room and steals her baby. Everyone chases after him. Will Isabel find herself heart broken again with the loss of another child?

Pages: 336, Publication Date: 19 March 2020, My Rating: