The Insect Farm

May 4, 2015
Prebble, the CEO of the U.K. television network ITV, makes his U.S. debut with a creepy and effective modern gothic. Unprepossessing Englishman Jonathan Macguire has a mentally handicapped older brother, Roger, whose great obsession in life is his “insect farm”—an enormous living collection of bugs that he grows and feeds in various troughs, jars, and buckets in a garden shed. Jonathan is also deeply in love with his musically talented and pretty girlfriend, Harriet, and struggles with jealousy when another musician develops a crush on her. While Jonathan is away at school in Newcastle, his parents die in a fire, with Roger safe working at his insect farm. Jonathan returns home to care for his brother and is soon drawn into Roger’s strange world. When calamity strikes, the insect farm seems a perfect solution for each brother’s problems. Prebble maintains a consistent aura of dread throughout, but overwriting bogs down a tale that would probably have worked better at short story length. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider/ICM.

May 15, 2015
Light on suspense and heavy on creepy-crawlies, this debut finds a man desperate to cover up his crime and protect his brother when he might be the one who needs protecting. Growing up in 1950s London, Jonathan Maguire knew that his brother, Roger, older by six years, was different. Though Roger's condition is never named, it's intimated that he may be on the autism spectrum. As an adolescent, Roger developed an interest in bugs that grew into an obsession when his parents allowed him to build the titular insect farm in the family's garden shed. The insect farm provides companionship for Roger when his brother is in school and, later, when Jonathan meets the love of his life, flautist Harriet Chalfont. When he and Harriet depart for university in Newcastle, Jonathan assumes that he'll eventually inherit Roger-care duties from his parents, but that day comes sooner than expected after a tragedy. Now Roger's sole caregiver, Jonathan-who marries Harriet in a quickie civil ceremony before she returns to school-struggles to adjust to his new life. Roger lives in his own world, populated by an increasingly complex array of insects, as Jonathan tries to maintain a long-distance marriage. When the unthinkable happens soon after, Jonathan must cover his tracks and also ensure that Roger knows nothing of the terrible crime Jonathan committed (or did he?). But Jonathan soon realizes that he may have underestimated his brother all these years. Prebble creates, and just as quickly deflates, suspenseful moments, and the plot twists are so clearly telegraphed that few readers will be surprised by the outcome.

COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 15, 2015

Though a handsome young man, Roger Maquire has the mental acuity of an eight-year-old child. With no hope of ever living independently, the place Roger is happiest is in the shed behind his parents' house. It is here that he rules a kingdom of his own making, known as the insect farm. Jonathan Maquire is a devoted younger brother but with dreams that involve his girlfriend and going away to university. And then his parents die in a fire. Unable to bear the thought of Roger being put in a home, Jonathan leaves school to become his sibling's full-time caregiver. Unfortunately, the arrangement puts stress on Jonathan's relationship and it soon becomes clear that one of the brothers isn't who he seems. VERDICT Jonathan is honest and believable as he tells his tale in a way that slowly builds anticipation and dread. Clues left along the way, however, make the ending feel predictable and contrived. Despite these flaws, readers might find this book to be a welcome diversion from the typical cookie-cutter mystery.--Vicki Briner, Westminster, CO

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2015
Roger Maguire is mentally challenged, probably somewhere on the autism spectrum, and, as an adult, his childhood obsession with an ant farm grows into a full-blown insect farm housed in buckets, crates, and aquariums filling the backyard garden shed. His younger brother, Jonathan, also has an obsession: his girlfriend, Harriet, a musician. Jonathan knows he will eventually have to take care of Roger, but when their parents die in a house fire, that responsibility comes much sooner than expected. Jonathan and Harriet marry quickly, but she remains at college, and they maintain a difficult, long-distance relationship, which grows more complicated when Jonathan realizes that another musician is after his wife. Things come to a head with Harriet dead and Jonathan covered in her blood. He has no memory of the murder but goes into panic mode, hiding the body and plotting ways to throw blame elsewhere. Roger remains in his own world, and Jonathan continues to care for him as events unfold around them. While Prebble's novel begins like a supercreepy thriller, it gradually morphs into a compelling, even sensitive, story about brothers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)