Chapter Text
This volume starts out with a one shot mystery following a character named Ariel. He works at a flower shop and promised Suzette, an aristocratic woman, he’d bring her some primroses. Unfortunately, it’s not to be: she passes soon after.
Regardless, Ariel’s not our protagonist. Cain Hargreaves is and we meet him this chapter through Ariel’s eyes. Honestly, at first it’s a little puzzling why we’re seeing all of this from Ariel’s perspective instead of Cain’s but I believe this is so we get an idea of how the outside world views him before we see his own opinion on himself.
He’s mysterious and rather edgy and he seems to glorify in that because it becomes swiftly apparent that society’s opinion of Earl Hargreaves isn’t very high–he’s gone and missed Suzette’s funeral, which appears to be a typical thing for him. She’s also his cousin, so there’s a family connection. In other words, his own family isn’t terribly fond of him and expects this kind of behavior.
While this is enough to make it seem like he’s a bit questionable we also quickly learn grave digging isn’t all that unusual for him either, which should give you some idea of how things are going to go in this series.
He then proceeds to mock his aunt later, saying she was always horrible to Suzette. We’re not given nearly enough time with Suzette or her family to verify these claims but considering Suzette has come back from the dead to kill her I guess it’s safe to assume things weren’t great between them.
The whole thing is swiftly revealed to be a torrid love affair between Suzette, Ariel’s uncle, Miles, and a Miss Claremont. In other words, Miles was a cheater. But Suzette didn’t just wake up wanting revenge; her plan to fake her death made her mad as she was forced to contend with being buried in a coffin for hours.
Furthermore, Cain was in on the whole thing and was hoping to help her do it right, hence the grave digging. Also, he was the one who gave her the poison to help her fake her death, which is now being used to kill a bunch of people.
Insanity is a common theme in this series, especially when mixed with love, so it makes sense that we start with it right away. Pulling a Romeo and Juliet proved to be a terrible idea though.
After going insane, she starts killing people including Miles, her would-be Romeo.
But the really pertinent part of all of this (at least for Cain) is the revelation that Cain himself loved Suzette.
Love becomes a very prominent them in this series and the fact that the very first person we see Cain admit to loving is his insane cousin who stages her death for the sake of romance only to come back and kill everyone who did her wrong is, uh, telling.
So, the first chapter is honestly pretty straightforward but it gives us some information that is going to be crucial later on: Cain doesn’t have a good relationship with his extended family, he’s not a stranger to “forbidden love” (loving your cousin in a romantic sense was hardly uncommon in the 19th century but I still count it as “forbidden” here because she had no idea how he felt), he’s associated enough with poisons that his extended family comes to him for help faking their deaths, and, while it’s brief, we see he has a servant that seems to stick close to his side.
Honestly, I wish we’d learned a little more about Suzette. As it is we only know she was super determined and, according to Cain, always had to have her way. I suppose that gives us a basis for the kind of person he likes but not a great deal more.
And with that out of the way we’re moving on to chapter 2! This one starts out from Cain’s perspective, so it already feels like a more “proper” beginning to the series. And one page in we see that Cain has some serious Sherlock Holmes tendencies:
Riff isn’t paid enough for this.
Anyway, Cain definitely isn’t overly concerned with treating animals well (although he claims the hen will be fine) and his servant, Riff, whom we saw in the last chapter, is apparently already used to this kind of behavior and has all but given up on expecting things to be any different. He’s definitely the Watson of the piece (except that he’s also a butler).
This mystery is another family based one–Cain seems to have a constantly revolving door of relatives. In this instance it’s his uncle Leland who asks him to look into a letter he received from his deceased daughter, Maddy, whom Cain admits to not ever noticing much.
The shadow in question was Bibi, his uncle Leland’s illegitimate daughter that he had with a prostitute and it’ ultimately Bibi that we see Cain really grow attached to.
Maddy didn’t seem to think too highly of Cain after all:
And the feeling was apparently mutual.
This is an important scene for Cain down the road though because we eventually learn just how much he’s suffered in his own life. For him to say he can’t stand other people who wallow in self-pity it means he doesn’t allow it for himself either. It means he doesn’t allow himself to consider his own sorrow and that’s a difficult thing to maintain.
At any rate, while Cain has done a lot of questionable things in this volume so far, the one area he’s shown to be chivalrous in is he doesn’t take advantage of Bibi even though she’s a prostitute herself just like her mother. Even though he paid for her time he doesn’t demand sexual compensation and instead admits their similarities: neither of them had parents who loved them. Bibi was never loved by her father, Leland, and her mother is cold to her as well.
This statement could have easily come from Cain himself. While the ultimate resolution of this particular story is one I’m unsure how to feel about, it parallels Cain’s own life quite well, though we aren’t supposed to know that just yet.
The twist of the story boils down to “Bibi” was actually “Maddy” all along and Bibi was the one who died and while Leland was contacted by his daughter it was a daughter who had been hypnotized by his ex-mistress to kill him for mistreating the real Bibi. And before you think Leland’s had it rough, he wanted to marry his daughter, Maddy, and that is why he stopped being a playboy.
…There’s a lot to take in there but we don’t have time to unpack all that but there are some tidbits of information that will be relevant later.
Maddy was an aristocrat who was forced to demean herself through prostitution just to survive and she had a father who desired her sexually. In other words, it was an abusive relationship between parent and child even though this element of the story doesn’t really get touched on much. Maddy was also taken advantage of by Bibi’s mother.
The similarity is that Cain was also demeaned and abused by his parents and this is already being alluded to pretty early in the series. It’s also becoming apparent that it’s not just Cain’s immediate relatives who are problematic (something this volume has yet to even touch on really) but his extended family seems cursed as well. Is it a message about the aristocracy or just this bloodline? We’ll have to wait and see.
Another important element to this story is we also see that Riff is one of Cain’s only constants in his life and that he supports him quietly but firmly. He doesn’t say anything accusative after Cain reveals he ultimately killed Maddy. He did it because it was the only kind thing left to do and it was at her own behest. It’s a cruel revelation: the only way he can be kind is by being cruel.
The third story is … interesting for sure but unless I’m seriously missing something here, it doesn’t seem to feature Cain at all…? I suppose one interpretation could be he was undercover years ago at a boarding school but that seems like it would be stretching it. Still, the themes very much fit in with The Cain Saga: failed attempts at immortality, the abuse of the weak by the strong, and things of that nature.
The fourth story also doesn’t feature Cain at all but the themes of one person replacing another and fame corrupting fits in with the series. I would say more but, to be honest, neither of these stories give us a lot to interpret regarding Cain or the other primary characters in the series. In this particular story there’s a running thread of homophobia, which I suppose could be argued as fitting in with the forbidden love theme but I feel that’s a little tenuous at best. This is kind of an unusual thing to do in a series. I wonder if, originally, this wasn’t going to be about Cain but more of an exploration of themes? Hmm…
With the fifth chapter we’re back to Cain (and the 19th century…) and we’re thrown in the thick of it right away with Cain accusing a man of killing his brother, and Cain’s friend, Cleo.
This is a very short story but it emphasizes that Cain is … not always that kind, although ultimately he was trying to avenge Cleo. He tricks Orlando into thinking he has poisoned him (a legitimate threat considering we have already gotten it confirmed he’s well known for poisons in general) and Orlando ultimately kills himself.
Once again, I would really have liked to know more about Cleo. How close were they? Later in the series it feels like Cain doesn’t have any friends at all but this points out that isn’t the case.
Riff hasn’t gotten a lot of focus this volume either but his quiet presence is notable in how it’s one of the few consistent things throughout for Cain.
Anyway, this is a bit of a rough start to the series but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit! The gothic vibe is excellent, of course, and the conundrums presented are interesting to sort through. Since it’s been so long since I read I’ll admit I’d forgotten a lot of details but I’m looking forward to relearning them. ^^ I hope to get a review up of volume 2 soon.