Harriet Lane (1)

The setup is cool and scary, narrated by a protagonist who recognizes someone, watches and follows her, and somehow seems vaguely threatening. A second narrator is innocently glad to find a friend. And the neatly paired viewpoints on passing meetings and events add to the sense of something ominous without quite revealing what secrets lie hid.

The sense of ease with which someone can invade another person’s life is truly disturbing. And the sense of threat growing throughout the novel keeps the reader glued to the page. Masterfully building and releasing tension, the author brings readers to a place where the truth is only a hint of itself, and the darkness won’t let up.

Not all clues are used of course, and not all pathways explored. Random chance might get too much credit perhaps, and I felt oddly dissatisfied by the end. But the book remains a great psychological thriller, with all too plausibly real characters, and all too scarily believable situations.

Disclosure: I got it on a deal and I enjoyed it.… (mer)

As soon as I started this I knew it was a narrative voice I was going to enjoy listening to. Sharp and funny and observant, with an undercurrent of menace. It is a treat, too, to have those irritations of motherhood so skilfully depicted. What stay-at-home mum would not raise a wry smile at the bit where Emma returns home from shopping to find her husband reading the paper on the sofa, having generally neglected the kids (one needs a nappy change and the other is “bug-eyed in front of cartoons”), whereupon he happily hands everything back over to her and airily proposes to “jump in the bath”.

Reading this was such a pleasure it probably wouldn’t have mattered to me whether there was a plot, but essentially it centres around one of the characters having a secretly held grudge against the other. The cause of the grudge isn’t revealed until very late on in the book, giving the reader plenty of time to speculate. I don’t think many people will guess correctly. I don’t read other people’s reviews before writing my own but I’m going to guess some people will be disappointed. I wasn’t, though it may simply be that I had the best time reading it irrespective of the ending, and now have another author whose work I will definitely be seeking out.… (mer)