Missing mermaid

A detective having a ghost as a sidekick may not be an original idea — Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge listens to the spirit of a soldier who served under him in World War I while he is solving cases — yet Jess Kidd's Things in Jars (2019) still seems unique.

The novel, as strange as its title, features a young female detective named Bridie Devine. Her Watson is a half-dressed, tattoo-covered former boxer named Ruby Doyle, whom she can see and hear even though nobody else can. Having an invisible companion turns out to be advantageous.

The action takes place in London in 1863, although there are flashbacks to events in Bridie's troubled youth, which then impact the present story. Bridie is hired to find Christabel, supposedly the daughter of a wealthy man. This man turns out to be a collector of odd animate objects, those things in jars. Christabel, thought to be a mermaid, was, in fact, stolen. Now she has been stolen again.

Bridie was herself sold as a child, and she has a great deal of sympathy for Christabel. She assumes the girl has probably been sold to a circus, or perhaps to another collector.

Kidd, gifted at telling strange stories, excels in this one. Weird characters and situations abound. Bridie even falls in love with Ruby. Those things in jars are not the only oddities to be found here.