The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves

The first book in what’s known as the Vera Stanhope series was nothing like I expected and I mean that in a good way – and I had high expectations – expectations which were more than met. You see, having watched and loved the BBC series, Vera, I thought I had a fair idea of how, at the least, the principal characters in the TV show, Vera and her DS, Joe Ashworth would be represented. How wrong was I? In fact, Vera herself doesn’t appear until almost halfway through the book and Joe is barely there and, for a fan of the show, this is what makes this story very different. But what makes it stand out from the crime genre as well is the way in which the story unfolds.

Set in a small village in the north of England, the tale opens with three women – Racheal, Anne and Grace – arriving to stay at a farmhouse while they conduct an environmental survey on an area in which a proposed quarry is set to be developed. Rachael has been coming to the area for years and has become friends with the landowners. When Rachael arrives, she is horrified to discover the dead body of one of the owners, her friend Bella. Convinced it’s suicide, it’s not until other bodies start to appear that the initial assumption appears wrong or at the very least, suspicious. But why would Bella kill herself? And what could possibly connect her to the others? And why would anyone be killing these people anyhow?

Enter, Vera, stage left. A large, ungainly woman with a propensity for being a “gabby cow” (her words), Vera understands not only small village life and what people will be prepared to do to hide their secrets, but this particular area as she grew up nearby. But as the secrets start to be exposed and the various threads that connect people unravel, and the politics of environmentalism versus those with money and power start to come to the fore, more lives are put in danger.

Cleeves does an amazing job of bringing a series of characters (and the setting) to life with all their warts and foibles, strengths and anxieties. A great deal of the book focusses on Rachael, Anne and Grace – a part being dedicated to each point of view. The final part is Vera’s to own, so the reader is able to immerse themselves in the world these characters occupy, understand the network of relationships they’ve formed and often long before a murder is committed before seeing it from Vera’s point of view. It is so clever. Rather than making it easier to discover the perpetrator, it is much harder, which makes you appreciate Vera’s task (and respect her results) all the more.

This was a very fulfilling read that surprised me by being so character-focussed and yet not on the character I’d wrongly assumed would receive all the attention.

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The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

Firstly, I want to thank BookShout and William Morrow for providing me with a galley copy of this fabulous debut novel, The Woman in the Window, by A.J. Finn.

Secondly, what a ripper of a read.

Arising out of the same oeuvre as the spate of “girl” books (Girl on the Train, Gone Girl etc), replete with their unreliable narrators, who are arch manipulators, alcoholics and liars etc., The Woman in the Window relies on many of the tropes these books used. However, not only is there a “woman” at the heart of the story, with a complex psychology and history, who happens to be a highly qualified child psychologist with a PhD but, importantly to the plot, structure and ambience of the novel, she’s also a black and white movie buff, her preferred genre being Hitchcockian thrillers. More on that shortly.

Dr Anna Fox is, for reasons that eventually emerge, housebound. Suffering from agoraphobia, she is also far too reliant and irresponsible with prescription drugs and wine and has poor personal hygiene. Separated from her husband and daughter, she is also without a support network, unless you can call her psychologist, occupational therapist, tenant in the basement and those she manages in an online group a support. When she’s not in her various chatrooms or playing chess online, Anna spends her days calling her husband and daughter or viewing her neighbourhood through her windows, camera in hand so she can use its powerful lens to really observe the goings on in the world she’s currently rejecting.

When she witnesses something terrible, the tight, closed domain she’s created starts to unravel and she begins to doubt – not only the life she’s created and the few people she’s allowed to enter it – but herself. But, as a fabulous line in the book declares, “It isn’t paranoia if it’s really happening….”

Or is it?

That’s the central question facing Anna and, in turn, the reader.

Though the core plot takes a while to kick off, this is not a dull book, nor does it have a slow start. Right from the outset, the reader is drawn to Anna and her claustrophobic environment. We learn to see the world and others the way she does before that too is overturned. Not only is Anna, a difficult, clever, self-depreciating woman who is at least honest with herself some of the time, eminently likeable, but you quickly root for her and feel a sense of protectiveness as her bland existence quickly becomes so very sinister.

Though the underlying notion of the book isn’t original, there’s no doubt the execution – and the characters that enact it – is. Superbly drawn though the various characters are, for me the use of old movies is what sets this novel apart. They function not only as a brilliant device that works as foreshadowing and even analepsis, but also to add flesh to the bones of specific scenes. References to fabulous old films like Rear Window, Rope, Birds and so many others, mean they too become characters in the novel, explicit scenes playing in the background or quotes from characters driving the narrative forward, adding to the building tension, making parts of the book almost gothic. There were times I was holding my breath while my heart knocked against my ribs, so well done was the atmosphere – the clever use of the movies and memories of those and their chilling soundtracks as well, adding a frisson.

Overall, once I really lost myself in Anna’s tale, I couldn’t put the book down.

I am not surprised it is being optioned as a film. Cinematic in execution and delivery, it’s crying out for the same treatment the films it plays such serious and celebratory homage to are given.

An outstanding book that readers of Girl on the Train, The Girl Before, Gone Girl, Girl Last Seen etc will devour, but also anyone who enjoys a good, well-written thriller and page-turner.

 

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The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

BOOK Book Reviews 11514819042I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this novel as it entered the literary world with both a great deal of hype as well as comparisons to the hugely successful book, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

I am delighted to say, this was a terrific read. Sharing more in common with Flynn’s work than the use of “girl” in lieu of “woman”in the title, such as the notion of unreliable narrator/s, it’s an original, dark and compelling story told from three female points of view. The primary narrator is Rachel, the “girl” on the train who, when travelling to and from her work daydreams about an apparently loving couple she sees for a few seconds each time the train pauses on its journey and who happen to live a few doors down from her old house. Inventing a life and even names for them, she invests heavily in her imaginary scenario so much so, one day, when she sees something that doesn’t accord with her imagined view of their world, she is distressed. When she discovers the young woman she has named “Jess” is missing, she is compelled to uncover the truth of what she thinks she saw and what it might mean.

Things, however, are a little more complicated than a blurring of the lines between fact and fantasy, or adhering to the adage “seeing is believing”. It just so happens Rachel was in the area the night the woman, whose real name is Megan, goes missing. Rachel knows something terrible has happened and she may have borne witness to events. The only problem is, Rachel is an alcoholic who has “blackouts” and cannot recall what occurred or even if anything did…But she has snatches of memory… snippets of images and very strong feelings that she cannot dismiss. Do they mean something or is it the drink playing tricks?

The other two narrators are Rachel’s ex-husband’s new wife, the young mother, Anna, who lives a few doors down from the missing Megan (who is the third narrator), and in the same house Rachel used to dwell in and which represented such promise and happiness, until her marriage unravelled.

The three women’s stories and, indeed, version of events, are all interwoven with Rachel’s painful and desperate need to recall, interfere and discover what is true, what is not, and overcome her battle with the bottle and the demons of her past being dominant.

I don’t want to give away too much about this plot because it is clever. There were times I thought, how on earth is Hawkins going to pull this off? There is no way I am going to be able to suspend my disbelief regarding this…. But I did. The reader does, and that’s because the flawed and oft-times pathetic and frustrating narrators of this macabre tale are as believable and human as are the stupid, reckless and tragic decisions they make and the lives of those they draw into their stories and actions.

Light on police procedural (which is where I struggled a bit with some of the actions and behaviour of characters), this is far more a psychological thriller that plumes the depths of perception, of memory, of how we construct our lives, make excuses, accord blame, and reinvent ourselves in an effort to erase the past and shore up a future. It’s how the same people can view an identical event in completely different ways and react accordingly.

It is also about manipulation, violence – emotional, psychological and physical – betrayal (of ourselves as well) and the impact this has on others.

Once I started this tale, I could not put it down and felt quite wrung out at the end. Like the train Rachel rides, you hop on board and find yourself hurtling towards a destination that even if you see it coming, the arrival is daunting and haunting.

A great and unexpected novel containing beautiful prose and some genuinely marvellous reflections on people and life, featuring weak and real characters embroiled in events that will chill and thrill, this is a cracker of a read.

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