Bone Horn, the latest release by Cipher Press, is an intriguing detective story. Written by first-time novelist Prudence Bussey-Chamberlain, it follows a novice private investigator on a quest to find the horn of Alice B Toklas. According to the novel’s lore, Toklas’s signature fringe and the hats she often wore weren’t just a fashion choice, they were carefully used to conceal a small horn that protruded from the middle of her forehead.
As the investigator criss-crosses countries in search of answers, she descends into a tangled web of conspiracy, following dark paths and meeting violent rebuttals in her pursuit of the truth about Toklas’s alleged horn.
If it weren’t already obvious, this is an unbelievably niche work of fiction. Even within the already niche catalogue of Cipher Press, it’s hard to imagine the audience for Bone Horn being much larger than the number of people you could fit in a lift. And yet, the question of whether Alice B Toklas had a horn or not is exactly my kind of niche.
While I have to admit that the novel loses most of its momentum in the second half, it’s hard not to be in awe of Bussey-Chamberlain’s sheer ability to spin a narrative from such a gloriously absurd premise.
Bone Horn by Prudence Bussey-Chamberlain is out now (Cipher Press, £11.99). You can buy it from the Big Issue shop on bookshop.org, which helps to support Big Issue and independent bookshops.
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