Product Description

Brenda must face her demons, but first she needs to get to the bottom of the sinister goings-on that threaten to overcome an all-too-quiet seaside town.

When poison pen letters start flying around the quiet lanes of Whitby, trouble is in store for Brenda and Effie. And with Jessie the Zombie Womanzee, trips down memory lane and amorous ghoul hunting, literary minded and strangely youthful professors of Icelandic history, as well as a terrifying encounter with bamboo wickerwork gods from the dawn of time, even Brenda’s ample cup is running over. But her most challenging battle is the one she must fight with herself – or, at least, parts of herself…

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #466301 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
Paul Magrs was born in the North East of England. After seven years at the University of East Anglia teaching English Literature and Creative Writing, he now lives in Manchester and lectures part-time at the Manchester Metropolitan University.

Customer Reviews

If you only read one book this year, make it this one.
After reading the first instalment by Magrs in this series "Never the Bride" I was left eager to find out what happened next in this funny, dark and thrilling adventure story. So it's great to say that "Something Borrowed" does not disappoint. Magrs' protagonist Brenda, a Whitby B&B landlady with a hammer horror past has come to retire at the Yorkshire coast for the quite life, to spoil her guests and gossip with her best friend, the spinster next door, Effie. However, it's more than the lure of whitebait at Cod Almighty, and walks along the peer that have drawn Brenda to Whitby. It's become her destiny to battle with all the creatures that are spat straight from hell to run amok in the seaside town.

"Something Borrowed" is pure indulgence, with its original mix of the macabre, humour, detection and the supernatural. What is surprising is how much I have come to care about Brenda, who is not a freak of nature but of science. Whilst utterly enjoyable and thrilling, once the book is over, not only am I Ieft wanting more again, but questioning what is a freak? If I can love this woman of many human parts, is it the other we can see that we should be scared of, or the darker side of humanity that lurks within? In this case it is the unknown other who is the hero. If you only read one book this year, make it this one. I've recommended "Never the Bride" and "Something Borrowed" to many friends, of completely different literary tastes and without exception they have loved it. I just can't wait for Magrs' third instalment in what is becoming an exciting genre of his own.

I'll never see Whitby in quite the same way again!!!
I feel as though I have just jumped off a moving train....
I will be reading more and soon!
there are many comparisons in these reviews but the voice I was hearing above all was Douglas Adams. Paul Magrs gives us quirky, fantastic characters and deals with them in the same matter of fact almost world weary way that Adams used to such acclaim.
I just hope he becomes as prolific!

More fantastic adventures with Brenda and Effie...
Following on from `Never the Bride', `Something Borrowed' sees the return of Brenda and Effie and follows them on further adventures around Whitby. If you haven't read `Never the Bride', it might be better to start there but it isn't essential.

Brenda, the original Bride of Frankenstein (literally), is called on by her elderly friend Effie to help investigate a series of poison pen letters being received by Whitby folk. The most prominent recipient is Sheila Manchu, the wife of the notorious Mu Mu Manchu.... In order to solve the mystery Brenda will be forced to delve into the past that she has kept buried deeply.

If you have read the first book, you'll know to expect fantastic black humour with a gothic twist. The novel borrows from other gothic novels and characters including Dracula, Day of the Triffids, Frankenstein and The Wicker Man.

Another glorious instalment with an ending that means I can't wait for the next book in the series!