eBook The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise ePub

I've never read anything like this wonderful, warm and wacky book. Set largely within the Tower of London, the book is packed from start to finish with fun and quirky characters and scenarios. In the midst of the array of intertwining narratives, the history of the Tower of London is revealed throughout. Overall, it is just a delightful book.

The story follows Balthazar and Hebe Jones; he is one of the famous Beefeaters who staff the Tower of London, while she is a clerk at the London Underground's Lost Property Office. The couple lives in the Tower along with the other Beefeater families, and they have suffered a tragedy in their lives which is a thread that is slowly revealed throughout the book. They are struggling with their 30-year-old marriage while going about their daily lives surrounded by eccentric characters who provide some much-needed levity to the book. In the meantime, all manner of interesting objects turn up at Hebe's Lost Property office and this provides another round of fun and funny anecdotes.

This book was such an unbelievable pleasure to read. At times it seemed like the story was going to float off into the giddy ether, only to be guided back by the steady hand of the author. It struck the perfect balance between hope and sadness. I absolutely loved this book and would recommend to anyone.

At first I thought this was another one of those quaint novels featuring wacky English eccentrics. After all, it's about a man named Balthazar Jones of all things. He's one of those retired soldiers who works at the Tower of London, the ones we know as Beefeaters. His Greek wife Hebe works in the London subway's lost-and-found, and they live in the Tower with their 104-year-old tortoise. He collects rain samples; she find that annoying. How cute. Then I read the bit about how their only son died under mysterious circumstances some years before the novel opens and how they have been unable to discuss it or support each other through the tragedy. Not so cute.

Still, "The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise" does a remarkable job of handling that material without bogging down into soap opera territory. This brings us back to that English eccentricity; I wonder if such a story could be set anywhere other than England and still retain that lightness of touch. With all due respect, for instance, how serious can a story possibly be when so many of the main characters dress in that outfit? It looks like some designer got a job in a clown-costume factory and couldn't quite remember where to put the accordion pleats. (Just take a look at the nearest bottle of Beefeater gin if you're not sure what I'm talking about - that's the dress uniform, but the daily uniform looks like a sort of depressed version of the same getup.)

Besides the clothing, the story also includes a clergyman who writes romance novels in his spare time, the man who spends his days taking care of the Tower's collection of ravens, the lost-and-found's other employee who alleviates her boredom by trying on the false beards people have left on the trains, and a few dozen other oddballs. Then you take another look and realize that they're all, without exception, looking for love. That's a nice touch from the author, who presents us with a genuinely loving couple in crisis as her main characters.

At which point we learn that the Queen has decided to restart an ancient tradition by moving all her exotic animals - the ones that foreign leaders have presented to her - from London Zoo to the Tower. She wants to have the Beefeaters set up a menagerie on the Tower grounds, like the one that used to be there in previous centuries. And on top of all his other problems, who gets to take care of these animals and birds? Balthazar, that's who. Well, a man needs a hobby.

If there's a weakness to this novel it's that from this point onward, the outcome is pretty much of a foregone conclusion. Just about all the characters are people of good will, and we all know what happens to people of good will in a romantic comedy, no matter how many obstacles they have to get through. This is a quirky, touching, sometimes moving romantic comedy - there's a child's death involved, for goodness' sake - but a romantic comedy nonetheless.

The author intelligently loaded in some structural weight to balance the lightness of her materials. Most noticeably, everyone in this story has some connection to the Tower of London, and that shared background provides the characters with some dimension, some life outside of the romance machinery. They didn't just drift into this story by coincidence; they were there already. A romance, like any fiction, is an artifice, but things like the common setting make this one seem more natural.

Another structural stroke that lends this confection some weight is Hebe's activities on behalf of the London subway's lost-and-found. She and her colleague don't just collect lost objects and take advantage of them - reading the books and diaries, trying on the clothes, trying to open the safe - they also look for the owners and return the things. Some of the people they encounter in this endeavor have stories of their own to tell and contributions of their own to make. They even have something to say about what's happened to Balthazar and Hebe.

Still, although this novel is more than a piece of cotton candy, it remains a romantic comedy. On the other hand, "Pride and Prejudice" is also a romantic comedy. What makes that one great, and this one good?

In the end, of course, you'll have to figure that out for yourself - there may even be those among you who think that "The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise" is great and "Pride and Prejudice" good, although if that's your opinion you and I are going to have to discuss sports or television shows rather than literature when we meet. My sense is that the respective quality of this novel and others has to do with a couple of things, plausibility and imagination.

Ms. Stuart has done a very fine job in this work, but no one really lives like her characters - even, I suspect, the real Yeoman Warders of the Tower. The greatest danger they face is sadness; painful but bearable. The characters in "Pride and Prejudice" face the real possibility of homelessness. Those in "Tom Jones" face public humiliation or domestic violence. Those in "Catch-22" face actual death. All very funny, partly because the stakes are so high. As has been said before, when someone in a silent movie slips on a banana peel, it's funny because you can't see the bruises, but you know the bruises are there. This novel doesn't quite reach that level.

But let's not take that whole business too seriously. All it really means is that "The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise" isn't a classic. Not yet, anyway - only time will tell. Meanwhile, this novel is very funny, often moving, and in the end triumphant. Wait until you learn, in the last line, what that tortoise accomplishes.

Benshlomo says, If it bends, it's funny - if it breaks, it's not.

This work of fiction is so well written that you begin to believe it is a true story. Combining the history of the Tower of London with a modern 'what if?' is brilliantly done by Ms. Stuart.

The premise is 'What if' the tower once again opened the menagerie of exotic animal 'gifts' to the Queen? It is a simple question, but this book has you crying, laughing out loud, sympathizing with romantically challenge persons and more.

The story follows the Yeoman Warder (Beefeater,) Balthazar Jones, as he is assigned being 'in charge' of re-opening the Menagerie. If this isn't enough for the poor man, he is also trying to cope with the death of his young son, Milo. His wife, Hebe Jones, has the most unusual job of working for the Underground's lost and found. Hebe is also torn by Milo's passing and finds her marriage in deep trouble.

There are other characters that will have you laughing, sighing, and hoping for their favorable outcome in life. Meanwhile, there are the Penguins, Bearded Pig, Giraffes and more. Also, Mrs. Cook, a 181 year old Tortoise who gets her revenge on...well, I'm not going to spoil this tale.

This is an excellent novel and reads so quickly as the story compels you to see what happens. I'm looking forward to Ms. Stuart's next novel in my TBR piles, "The Pigeon Pie Mystery." This is a treat yourself book.

Set in modern-day London, inside the Tower of London, we meet Balthazar Jones who is a Beefeater (the official guardians of the Tower of London). He and his fellow Beefeaters give tours and answer questions about the history of the fortress. Not only do they act as tour guides but their families live there as well, and Balthazar lives there with his beautiful Greek wife Hebe, and a 120 year old tortoise named Mrs. Cook. Hebe has an interesting job too, working in the London Underground Lost Property office. Their lives are bizarre, and overshadowed by the loss of their only child. The people they work with are all a little strange, and everything only gets weirder when the Queen asks Balthazar to become the caretaker for her menagerie of animals which are being moved from the London Zoo to the Tower.

Outrageously funny, quirky and a little dark; we are talking about the Tower of London where torture and death were common place. In spite of the title, this is not a children's book. If you like English humor, and like English history you'll love this book. I've never had so much fun learning about England's past and present. I read this great story on Kindle and gave it 5 stars.