The Third Magpie

The Third Magpie is a dystopian romance set in an insular post-Brexit England, now called New Albany, that is approaching Atwood's Gilead in some of its strictures. Sons are revered, young women are once again chattels, to be married off in the most advantageous deals, and those foreigners remaining in New Albany are treated as second class citizens, tagged and subject to even stricter rules. Finn, an Irishman, married Sophie before the new rules came in and opted to stay to be with the love of his life, but accepting the Draconian rules he has to live under is hard, even though Sophie is the daughter of a high up government minister. Sophie and Finn muddle along, she a nurse, he an English teacher, but when the new governor of their region employs Finn to give his manipulative teenaged daughter extra lessons, events are set off that will make surviving in this environment a nightmare for the couple, and will place their lives in jeopardy.

Despite being 525 pages long, I did find this an engaging read, wanting to find out what would happen to Finn and Sophie, but particularly Finn. Clements mixes an awful lot into the plot - parallels between New Albany and the marriage market in Jane Austen's world feature strongly in Finn's extracurricular lessons with the awful Cat; then of course there is the ghettoisation of foreigners and the SS-like treatment meted out to them, not to forget Sophie's privileged status and inserts from Finn's pre-New Albany life.

As is often the case with first novels, there are many different themes competing for attention as the author feels compelled to use all their ideas, and consequently, it sometimes lost pace. I felt there was a 350-400 page novel trying to get out from under the complexity; for me some streamlining would have generated more suspense - but I read far more thrillers than romances.