Frog Music is complex evocative novel completley unlike her bestseller Room, which was the only other Emma Donoghue book I’d read. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but quickly lost myself in the sweltering, feverish, murky world of a century-or-so-ago San Francisco.

It felt like I was following a cast of anti-heros and heroines on their various journeys through the embryonic city. The characters were flawed, but there were glimpses of the people they could be, might still be, had their circumstances been different. Not that I liked many of them very much, but despite that I was drawn into their stories.

This was one of those books I’m still thinking about this morning, after finishing it last night. The fact that it’s based on a true story helping the narrative and characters reverberate through my mind.

I’m conscious this is only one telling of the tale, many others have taken different approaches, and we will never know the true story of this unsolved crime.