It may be enjoyable to take a position about nature versus nurture, to think about which of our quirks could be innate and which could have been formed by the place or with whom we grew up. Whereas we’re at it, we will additionally ponder that well-known query of Shakespearean origin: What’s in a reputation?
However Shenanigan Swift, the intelligent and fascinating hero of Beth Lincoln’s debut novel, The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels, has lately realized that such musings aren’t so satisfying anymore. Though Shenanigan’s identify earns her a cross when she’s feeling cussed or has carried out one thing an eensy bit damaging (like placing the household cat within the empty coffin earlier than the month-to-month rehearsal of her aunt’s funeral), it additionally makes her really feel misunderstood when others insist on seeing her solely as an embodiment of her identify as a substitute of as a person.
Nevertheless, Shenanigan is way from the one Swift with a reputation that’s each prediction and label. For generations, the Swifts have used their household dictionary to randomly choose names that by some means turn out to be destinies. Shenanigan’s older sisters are named Phenomena and Felicity, her uncle is Maelstrom, her ancestors embrace Calamitous and Godwottery (the latter that means “overly elaborate gardening” or “old style and affected language”), and the Swift household matriarch is Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude. Hilariously, the aforementioned cat is just “John the Cat.”
This weekend, Shenanigan will meet much more relations with dictionary-dictated names, as a result of the Swift household reunion is nigh. Far-flung people will descend upon the stately but decrepit Swift Home, a Seventeenth-century manor full of secret doorways, the occasional turret and a library that holds each books and booby traps. It’s the right setting for the keystone exercise of each reunion: the hunt for Grand-Uncle Vile’s long-lost fortune, which Shenanigan is decided to seek out all by herself. Alas, Shenanigan’s plans are interrupted when somebody shoves Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude down the steps, and different murders quickly observe. Amid the following shock and chaos, Shenanigan and Phenomena staff as much as remedy the crimes earlier than anybody else is harmed.
Rife with scrumptious stress and charmingly dry wit, The Swifts explores and celebrates the wonders of wordplay and the complexity of id whereas serving up a compelling homicide thriller and a twisty treasure hunt. As Lincoln notes in her introduction, “The factor about language is that it may well’t keep nonetheless. Stressed and impatient, it races ahead with out ready for our dictionaries to catch up.” Phrase nerds will emphatically agree—they usually’ll be delighted to know {that a} sequel is within the works, too.
