Book Crush, The Continuity Girl- Patrick Kincaid

"It's 1969. Hollywood descends on a tiny Scottish village for the making of Billy Wilder’s most ambitious picture yet, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.

Title:

The Continuity Girl

Date of Birth:

2018

Author:

Patrick Kincaid

Round up:

1969. Hollywood descends on a tiny Scottish village for the making of Billy Wilder’s most ambitious picture yet: a sprawling epic detailing The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. But the formidable director and his crew soon come into conflict with Jim Outhwaite, a young scientist seeking evidence for monsters.

Why it's great:

Inspired by the book, to coin a phrase from the film industry there is a sweet but unusual cute-meet of Jim and The Continuity Girl, and turning the traditional romantic scenes on their heads is what make The Continuity Girl such a lovely whimsical read. In one sweet moment, the make-over scene is twisted round to delightful effect.

The Characters surrounding the two main protagonists are wonderfully visualised and well rounded rather than just foils or mirrors to the main characters, (I'm a big fan of the Scottish science team). Blending the space race, Loch Ness monster hunters and the filming of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, in less skilful hands, could have been cluttered but it works beautifully.

Exploring themes like obsession, Occam's Razor, the tricky bind of proving the non-existence of something, to name just a few. Kincaid's light touch makes easy work of these heavy themes. A charming love story but like the Loch Ness, bubbling from underneath The Continuity Girl is far more.

Best place to read:

Do I even need need to say it? Take a picnic (egg sandwiches to really capture Jim's functional mindset) two blankets, one for the grass one for you and head out for the main character of this novel; The Loch Ness.

Dinner Party Prat Fact:

Want to know the biggest bitch in all of Britain be? Loch Ness. She's around 228 meters deep and holds more water than in all of the lakes and rivers of England and Wales combined.

Best quote:

"And have you seen any evidence that there isn't any monsters?”

In a word:

Delightful

Here's the magical link* for buying.

If you fancy asking him any questions or just saying hi, he's also on The Twitter and Instagram.

*not actual magic.

So I’m a big fan of transparency as my friends can attest to when I get into one of my tirades about the tech giant's harvesting of human spirit for profit, and so on and so forth, add expletives as required. So in an effort to live as I rant, I must tell you that although I have never met the wonderful Patrick Kincaid, (the author) he is with the same publisher as I am; the delicious Unbound.