A Room Swept White (Spilling CID, #5)

Nov 11, 2012 Monica rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-and-or-evil, british

I found Simon and Charlie and their unconsummated romance terminally annoying about 5 books ago. I kept fantasizing about locking them into a windowless room and nailing the door shut - they would finally have sex, or perhaps kill each other. Either would be an improvement. And then there are his obsessive hatred of his boss and his mother issues.

Hannah picks fascinating subjects, and then peoples her stories with a cast of dozens all of whom are almost impossible to care about. Fliss, the narra...more

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May 11, 2013 Sarahr rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sophie-hannah

This is something of a departure for Sophie Hannah:

- Yes, we have the obligatory first-person narration by a sympathetic heroine alternating with third-person cop scenes.

- There are twists and turns and Deep Psychological Problems are explored.

- There is a Strange Event at the start.

BUT... it is essentially a straightforward murder mystery. Yes, someone is killed and the cops try to find out who did it. No strange disappearances, mistaken identities or people confessing to crimes that haven't be...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Hilary G rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sophie Hannah was unknown to me when I picked up this book at the library. While I didn't think the novel was extraordinary, I must have found it unusual and absorbing enough to want to read more and I read five more of her books in the following weeks. I found that some of her earlier books were even better than this one. Her psychological mysteries are compelling and, as far as I was concerned, defied unravelling before the end. Nothing predictable about her stories. I think my response to the...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Shonna Froebel rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a novel with psychological twists and turns that will keep you glued to your chair. The focus is women who have been accused of murdering either their own children or children they have been minding. The main characters is Fliss Benson a television producer, a lower rung producer at her firm until something happens that causes her to be in charge of a documentary already partially done. At first she is reluctant to take on the job, feeling manipulated and wary of her own past, but soon f...more

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Sep 25, 2012 Coffeecurls rated it 3 of 5 stars

TV producer Fliss Benson receives an anonymous card at work. The card has sixteen numbers on it, arranged in four rows of four – numbers that mean nothing to her.

On the same day, Fliss finds out she’s going to be working on a documentary about miscarriages of justice involving cot-death mothers wrongly accused of murder. The documentary will focus on three women: Helen Yardley, Sarah Jaggard and Rachel Hines. All three women are now free, and the doctor who did her best to send them to prison fo...more TV producer Fliss Benson receives an anonymous card at work. The card has sixteen numbers on it, arranged in four rows of four – numbers that mean nothing to her.

On the same day, Fliss finds out she’s going to be working on a documentary about miscarriages of justice involving cot-death mothers wrongly accused of murder. The documentary will focus on three women: Helen Yardley, Sarah Jaggard and Rachel Hines. All three women are now free, and the doctor who did her best to send them to prison for life, child protection zealot Dr Judith Duffy, is under investigation for misconduct.

For reasons she has shared with nobody, this is the last project Fliss wants to be working on. And then Helen Yardley is found dead at her home, and in her pocket is a card with sixteen numbers on it, arranged in four rows of four . . .

I find Sophie Hannah to be an outstanding writer, her plots are often brave and touch upon subjects that most authors would leave well alone. A Room Swept White is a classic example of this as all the way through the book you have the much deeper unspoken subplot of whether or not you, the reader, believes that the three women killed their babies.

Sadly for me the book was lacking key characters to carry such an amazing storyline.

The Simon Waterhouse, Charlie Zailer and Proust relationship has become farcical. Such a shame as a few books back it was brilliant. Now Zailer is basically kept in a box until the author needs her for something, Waterhouse has become borderline psychotic but with none of the charisma which would normally accompany such a role and as for Proust, well, I’m a bit lost for words.

The worst thing for me was the way that the story seemed to jog along with lots of ‘is it this person, is it that person’ and then all of a sudden it felt as though the allocated number of words had been completed therefore, like a magician pulling a rabbit out from a tatty hat, the murderer is revealed and a few other loose ends are randomly and unbelievably tied up all in the space of about 4 pages.

Insulting.

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Sep 04, 2012 Sandie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A killer is on the loose in England and he has very specific targets. He is obsessed with the topic of women accused of killing their babies. Some of these women have been convicted, some found not guilty. Some have been released on appeal to a general consensus that they were innocent, while others have been released but may well have done the crime. The obsession spreads further to doctors who testified either for the prosecution or the defense, especially one doctor, who is about to have her...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Jenny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011

This is the second book of Sophie Hannah's that I've read, and I am truly thrilled to have found Hannah's books. Just as with The Wrong Mother, my first Hannah book, The Cradle in the Grave involved an intricate, gripping plot combined with literary elements and some controversial topics.

The Cradle in the Grave tells the story of three women whose children passed away for unexplained reasons. Some call it "crib death" or SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), while others say the mothers murdered...more This is the second book of Sophie Hannah's that I've read, and I am truly thrilled to have found Hannah's books. Just as with The Wrong Mother, my first Hannah book, The Cradle in the Grave involved an intricate, gripping plot combined with literary elements and some controversial topics.

The Cradle in the Grave tells the story of three women whose children passed away for unexplained reasons. Some call it "crib death" or SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), while others say the mothers murdered them. Two of the mothers are initially found guilty and later acquitted on appeal, and the other mother is found not guilty from the get-go. Fliss Benson, originally somewhat of a peon in the production company, Binary Star, is suddenly tasked with taking over production of the documentary on these "crib death murders". Then, Helen Yardley, one of the wrongly accused mothers is killed. Fliss, meanwhile, receives a card in the mail with 16 numbers on it (4 rows of 4); it just so happens that the murdered woman is found with one on her as well. So while Fliss tries to continue with the documentary and find out the truth about Helen's murder, document the history of the children's crib deaths, and possibly find out what really happened to the children (all while hoping she's not next), the entire local police station band together to solve the murder of the famed mother. Oh, and there's also the expert witness doctor who testified against all these mothers who is now being investigated and will likely lose her license.

First, let me say this book is apparently party of a series... I think. The detectives all appeared in The Wrong Mother. I don't remember much about them but their basic characteristics and their names. I'm not sure if their back stories are really integral to the series or not. I'm one of those that does NOT like reading series out of order... and turns out this is the most recent in the series and The Wrong Mother is third of five. Normally that would give me all kinds of reader anxiety, but I really didn't feel like I was missing anything. If I hadn't recognized the names, I wouldn't have realized I was reading a series. The core of this story was really the other characters, the mystery, and the scandals.

Not only is Hannah's writing wonderful, but I liked the format and structure of the book. Though most of the story is told through the traditional narrative methods (alternating chapters from the detectives in third person and Fliss Benson in first person), Hannah also included interview transcripts, excerpts from a book one of the characters wrote, an article written by another character, and later the prologue from another character's book. Now as I write it it sounds confusing, but truly it wasn't and it added a lot to the story.

As for the actual meat of the story, there was so much. Like I said, there was really intricate thriller, but it was combined with a pretty hot topic. In that vein, this book was sort of a vehicle for discussion. There was a time in the past when I stopped a book midway through and really had a lot of negative to say about it because it felt like the author must have been wronged and clearly had an agenda. As I have spent my entire post-college career in child welfare, I took offense to that. I worried momentarily that The Cradle in the Grave was going there as well. Hannah's characters ruminate and philosophize on the concept of crib death and on the child welfare system. (Turns out the child welfare system in the UK works exactly as the one in Florida!) So, of course, if the characters criticized parts of it (which they surely did), I was thinking of the rebuttals and rationalizations in my head. And I also happen to know a lot about "crib deaths" from my last job, so whenever there was talk about the symptoms of all the various injuries, I was SURE I knew what happened. Turned out, though, that Hannah managed to present rational arguments from both sides of the debate and really represented the topic well, in my mind. I liked how the book ended in that while the mystery was solved, the other topics left me thinking. There's definitely a lot that could be discussed after reading this book, though I would only recommend discussion of it to the most democratic and sensitive of groups.

The Cradle in the Grave was fantastically put together and wove in quite the hot topic for debate. I can't wait to read more of Hannah's books.

Taken from my blog at www.takemeawayreading.com (less)

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Nov 14, 2011 Automedusa rated it 4 of 5 stars

When it comes to thrillers, misteries, murders and the rest, I prefer to stay on the other side of the Atlantic, over there in Europe. I discovered Sophie Hannah with this book which I bought on impulse in a lovely independent bookstore in Ottawa.

It's incredible how an author can tackle subjects that are so painful for a society and make them so believable, excruciating and utterly sad as she did in this book on top of keeping the story flowing, fast and intriguing.

Britain has had its share of...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Diane Wallis rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who like psychological thrillers

Never read a Sophie Hannah before and therefore had no background information about Proust of the Culver Valley CID and not the French novel and Charlie, Sam and Simon of the same outfit. Must dip into the previous books to bone up on them and get to grips with their in-fighting, tensions and dark secrets. I love the title of this book and feel that readers in the US have been deprived of its beauty and poetry – their version is The Cradle in the Grave which, to my mind, is dull and obvious by c...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Mason rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

THE CRADLE IN THE GRAVE may be listed as a psychological thriller, but it could also be listed as a thought-provoking novel.

The heart of the story deals with the conviction and later release of 3 women wrongly accused of murdering their young children. The women are Helen Yardley, Sarah Jaggard, and Rachel Hines. They are dubbed the ‘crib-death mothers.’

TV producer Fliss Benson finds herself suddenly making a documentary about the 3 women after her boss, Laurie Nattrass, quits and hands everythi...more

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Sep 07, 2011 Tonya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

What can I say about this book that doesn’t give anything away? It’s a Sophie Hannah book, it contains Waterhouse and Zailer and the Culver Valley CID characters, and the novel focuses on women who were convicted of killing children then had their cases overturned because an expert witness had been vilified after the fact.

When I first started reading Sophie Hannah, a couple years ago, I found her writing style odd but effective, it nearly made me never want to read her books again but I found my...more What can I say about this book that doesn’t give anything away? It’s a Sophie Hannah book, it contains Waterhouse and Zailer and the Culver Valley CID characters, and the novel focuses on women who were convicted of killing children then had their cases overturned because an expert witness had been vilified after the fact.

When I first started reading Sophie Hannah, a couple years ago, I found her writing style odd but effective, it nearly made me never want to read her books again but I found myself pulled in and ultimately enjoying her writing style and her characters.

In ‘The Cradle in the Grave’ we get differing views and ideas and “facts” regarding three women’s’ infanticide trials, we get clues that make no sense, and we get Fliss a paranoid girl in love with the idea of loving her boss. Fliss drove me nuts, but she was essential to the story, and truthfully we all know someone that could be or is a Fliss. I’m also tired of Waterhouse’s need to hate Proust and am waiting for him to realize they are in many ways mirror images of each other.

The murder mystery is, when broken down, easy to decipher but the twists and turns and wonderfully clever sidetracks we get to experience to come to the end is great. I enjoy novels for many reasons and one is the journey I’m given during the story even if some parts are weak or slow if I have an entertaining story or character I’ll forgive a lot so I forgive some of the small foibles for the overall story. One example; the ending, one of the primary questions we have throughout the book is never definitively answered but in real life it would never be either. There are so many, many things I want to discuss but I refuse to get into them here because, well, that’s not fair to others.

All in all and excellent read, it’s easier and you’ll understand the dynamics of the Culver Valley CID characters much better if you read Hannah’s previous books. The story, I guarantee, will make you think about your own opinions and how much they are shaped by doctors, media, or advocate groups and how reasonable they all sound when you hear only one side and never another.
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May 10, 2011 VivaPalestina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

'You can always, and easily, give somebody the gift of hope and faith, even in the midst of despair.'

A Room Swept White is a chilling psychological thriller analysing the concept of justice, truth and conceptions. It deals with one of the more controversial issues of social services and miscarriages of justice. Fliss Benson, a T.V producer receives a card with nothing more than 16 carefully ordered numbers, four by four, the same of which is found with a murdered woman, one that was acquitted a...more 'You can always, and easily, give somebody the gift of hope and faith, even in the midst of despair.'

A Room Swept White is a chilling psychological thriller analysing the concept of justice, truth and conceptions. It deals with one of the more controversial issues of social services and miscarriages of justice. Fliss Benson, a T.V producer receives a card with nothing more than 16 carefully ordered numbers, four by four, the same of which is found with a murdered woman, one that was acquitted a few years ago for the murder of her two children, later released after an appeal of miscarriage of justice.

Reading this book reminded me of the scandal surrounding Baby P (a 17 month year old child repeatedly abused by his mother and her boyfriend) with the GP and Social Services choosing to overlook it, which resulted in his murder. An outcry ensued, and the Social Services came under a lot fire. Burdened with the taint of separating families, even while acting out of the child’s best interest, there is still a chance of making mistakes, and they will never get rid of the stigma. A Room Swept White portrays both side, on one side the hurt they cause, the havoc wrecked when they separating children from well meaning parents, and also the damage caused if they don’t interfere.

Sometimes she is right, sometimes she is wrong
That was the crux of the story, the pivotal point when one realises there are no answers, people make mistakes, and it is only the consequence of such mistakes that determine how these mistakes are judged. Anyone could err, the mother could theoretically speaking harm her child, and a social worker could theoretically misjudge a woman and sentence a whole family’s separation, there is no clear cut way out.

The character analysis of this novel wasn’t extensive or in depth, but at the same time there wasn’t a lull or a moment’s pause, the author literally has you on tenterhooks to find out what next, a deeply engrossing and riveting read, truly defines ‘page-turner’. This book has you literally sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to find out what is going to happen, never a dull moment, no place you can stop to pause as every page would yield its own surprises. The heavy drama is regularly punctuated by some quippy humour to lighten the atmosphere. I particularly enjoyed how the writer was able to efficiently alternate between narratives, changing her technique if necessary to allow it to reflect upon the character.

'Who said dishwasher makes life easier? When you want a clean cup or plate, you get a stinking caravan full of curry stalacites dripping baked bean juice. When you want the damn thing empty and ready to receive, that's the moment in picks to be full to bursting with an entire dinner service, gleaming and ponging of lemon'

Ideally, I would like to give it three and a half stars, if only because the ending wasn't as good as the entire book, but to be fair, no ending would have been able to wrap up the few hours of bliss spent engrossed in the book. A definite must read.(less)

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Jan 09, 2011 Dawn rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was keen to read this book as soon as I read the blurb on the back. Sophie has had great reviews and the subject of cot deaths, miscarriages of justice is a brave one to tackle.

The book started off well and the storyline was good, but as the book progressed the amount of story lines weakened the main storyline. It was also a bit confusing as one of the police officer was referred to as his real name and his nickname. It took several appearances of this character for me to understand it was th...more

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Dec 08, 2012 Rosie rated it 2 of 5 stars

As with many ( most?) of Sophie Hannah's novels, this one was promising and intriguing until 80% of the way through, when the inevitable disappointing ending starts to break in. This was certainly one of her poorer efforts.

It was very contrived and incredibly unrealistic, seemingly in order to get information across to the reader in a lazy way ( e.g. people mentioning irrelevant things in interviews, regurgitating long stories to other characters who already knew them, people magically jumping...more

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Aug 31, 2011 Smitha rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-mystery-thriller, ethereal

this is typical Sophie Hannah - dark psychological mystery with prominent female characters, and too many twists and turns to really identify the perp before the very last page. In this book she has dealt with a gruesome topic - that of mothers killing their infants. This story deals with 3 mothers who were imprisoned for killing their offsprings (one is not a mother, but a lady who is supposed to have smothered her friend's infant) and the media struggle for their release as a few people believ...more

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Mar 26, 2010 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: borrowed

I have dark shadows under my eyes, and I blame Sophie Hannah. I’ve stayed up much later than I intended for a few nights now, reading her newest book.

It’s her fifth crime novel, and in some ways it follows the pattern of the previous four by posing a seemingly unsolvable puzzle, but it other ways it is a much more serious, more thought-provoking, more mature work than the four that came before.

The trouble is though, because it’s a mystery I don’t want to say much more about the plot than is disc...more

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Apr 03, 2010 chucklesthescot rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, mystery-thriller

I liked the idea of the book more than the actual book itself.Three women have been freed or aquitted of murdering children in their care and the doctor who testified against them is facing misconduct charges.As a documentary about their cases is being filmed,one woman is murdered and everyone connected to the project is in danger.

A good idea that did not work for me as I read the book.Our heroine Fliss is a cardboard cutout female,placed there to fall in love with her boss and interview one of...more

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Aug 25, 2010 Boof rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-authors, read-in-2010, thrillers-mystery-crime, uk

The strength of this book, for me, was the subject matter. I love a good pyschological thriller anyway but you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by cot deaths and cases involving the deaths of babies which are at the centre of this book. It’s topical, relevant and current. And it made me think and ask myself questions that I had perhaps not asked myself before – A Room Swept White is a very clever book that looks at this whole issue without taking sides.

The story is told in both fi...more The strength of this book, for me, was the subject matter. I love a good pyschological thriller anyway but you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by cot deaths and cases involving the deaths of babies which are at the centre of this book. It’s topical, relevant and current. And it made me think and ask myself questions that I had perhaps not asked myself before – A Room Swept White is a very clever book that looks at this whole issue without taking sides.

The story is told in both first person (from the view point of Fliss Benson, a TV producer who is pretty low down the pecking order) and also the third person so the reader is privvy to all the goings on in the case. The book starts with the murder of Helen Yardley who was aquitted a few years ago of killing her two babies and spent 9 years in jail for their murder. She teamed up with a TV producer / Journalist called Laurie Natriss and together they formed JIPAC (Justice for Innocent Parents and Carers) and subsequently set about securing the releases of other women who had also been convicted of killing their own babies or those in their care. The morning after Helen’s murder, Fliss Benson is suddenly promoted and asked to carry on making the documentary about the released women, and Laurie Natrass leaves the company. That same morning Fliss received in the post a small white card with 16 numbers on it, which means nothing to her until she finds out that Helen has the same card left on her body by the murderer. What follows is a quest to not only find Helen Yardley’s killer before he strikes again but also to get to the truth about whether she did or didn’t kill her two boys.

What let this book down for me were most of the characters. I understand that it’s a plot driven book rather than character driven (which is why I love thrillers as they’re fast paced and you want to know what’s going on rather than what a character is wearing) but even so, I didn’t actually like most of them. Fliss, the first person protagonist, was made out to be incompetent and ditzy and I could never fathom her reason for witholding some evidence from the police. I had no mental image of her and she felt very one-dimensional, as did some of the other big characters. There was no-one at all in the book whom I actually routed for.

What I did like about the book, however, was the whole issue around the enormity of responsibilty in these cases and just how easily the media can make us believe one thing and then another. All throughout the book I though I believed one thing and then realised that I actually had made a decision on very few facts. Once other facts came to light I was swayed again (in fact several times). Either I am incredibly gulliable or the media is way more powerful than even I imagined. The whole issue around medical witnesses in legal cases was fascinating and certainly an eye-opener (and you may end up thinking differently by the end of the book than you did at the start).

To conclude, I really enjoyed this book. Despite the rather wooden characters and some ill-placed humour (Fliss’s comedic inner monologue felt a little uncomfortable to read sometimes as it didn’t fit with the overall tone of the book), the actual plot and subject matter was fascinating, surprising and gripping.
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Jun 02, 2012 Lynsey rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: intrigue

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 03, 2011 Gina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: library, child-abuse, child-murder, british-fiction, mothers, mystery-crime, psychological-thriller, suspense

Book Description- Television producer Fliss Benson receives an annonymous card at work, with 16 numbers on it, arranged in four rows of four-numbers that mean nothing to her. On that same day, Fliss finds out she's going to be working on a documentary about three crib death mothers wrongly accused of murder: Helen Yardley, Sarah Jaggard, and Rachel Hines. All three women are now free, and the doctor who testified against them , child protection zealot Dr. Judith Duffy, is under investigation for...more Book Description- Television producer Fliss Benson receives an annonymous card at work, with 16 numbers on it, arranged in four rows of four-numbers that mean nothing to her. On that same day, Fliss finds out she's going to be working on a documentary about three crib death mothers wrongly accused of murder: Helen Yardley, Sarah Jaggard, and Rachel Hines. All three women are now free, and the doctor who testified against them , child protection zealot Dr. Judith Duffy, is under investigation for misconduct. For reasons she has shared with nobody, this is the last project Fliss wants to be working on. Then Helen Yardley is found dead at her home, and in her pocket is a card with 16 numbers on it, arranged in four rows of four...

The British title of this book is A Room Swept White. The US title is The Cradle in the Grave. Fliss is a low level television producer whose boss calls her in and announces that he is leaving the company and the documentary that he alone has championed for years. He is leaving it for Fliss Benson. She quickly find out she is in over her head. Suddenly there are murders and attacks on those involved in the project and she wants nothing to do with it, until Ray Hines contacts her and suddenly becomes willing to be a part of the project as long as Fliss is in charge. Wanting to try and find answers, Fliss befriends Ray and continues on with the project. In the meantime, the Culver PD are trying to find their own answers as to who has killed Helen Yardley, who has recently been released from prison upon acquittal of the murder charges against her that she has killed her two children. She claims, as do others, that they died of crib death. A card with a grid of numbers was left at the crime scene. This crime is linked to the open air attack upon Sarah Jaggard, another mother who was found not guilty of killing a baby under her care, where another card with a grid of numbers was left for the police to find. These cards were also sent to the previous producer of the crib death documentary as well as Fliss Benson. Are the cards linking them all together? Are all of them targets? The police work diligently to get their answers and will be shocked at what they find.

As I began reading this novel, I had trouble maintaining focus as the story moved very slow and the author went into great detail of certain things that ended up not really being a part of the main story. It was like the author didn't really know where she was going at first. However after the first quarter of the book, it really picks up the pace and suspense. It was only after that point that I really couldn't put the book down. There were cetainly twists and turns and clues that leave the reader wondering. The author does an excellent job of pulling all of the strings together at the end which is really worth the wait. There were a few aspects of the story that I wish were explored or explained more, but maybe she will make this a series where other interesting events are explored independently. I personally would love to read more about Detective Charlie Zeilers and "Snowman" Proust.

Read this novel if you want a good psychological thriller/suspense novel, but don't give up on Hannah. Keep reading....the story will take you places you could never believe. (less)

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Nov 23, 2011 Janny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2011, dutch-reading, crimezone-buzzzclub

De oorspronkelijke titel van het boek is A Room Swept White, uitgegeven in 2010. Voor de Nederlandse markt vertaald door Anna Livestro. Het was voor mij een kennismaking met Sophie Hannah. En wat mij betreft is die goed bevallen.

Het thema van deze thriller is de wiegendood. Moeders die al dan niet ten onrechte zijn veroordeeld omdat hun baby's om onverklaarbare redenen dood zijn gegaan. Was het wiegendood, de DKTP vaccinatie of was het toch kindermoord. Veel vrouwen zijn hiervoor vervolgd, in he...more De oorspronkelijke titel van het boek is A Room Swept White, uitgegeven in 2010. Voor de Nederlandse markt vertaald door Anna Livestro. Het was voor mij een kennismaking met Sophie Hannah. En wat mij betreft is die goed bevallen.

Het thema van deze thriller is de wiegendood. Moeders die al dan niet ten onrechte zijn veroordeeld omdat hun baby's om onverklaarbare redenen dood zijn gegaan. Was het wiegendood, de DKTP vaccinatie of was het toch kindermoord. Veel vrouwen zijn hiervoor vervolgd, in het boek spelen drie van hen, Helen Yardley, Sarah Jaggard en Rachel Hines de hoofdrol. Fliss Benson werkt voor Binary Star en zij krijgt, geheel onverwacht, de kans om een documentaire over deze drie vrouwen te maken. Ze gaat er tegen haar zin mee aan de slag. Naarmate de documentaire vordert, wordt ze oprecht nieuwsgierig naar het verhaal van deze drie vrouwen. Vooral naar het verhaal van Rachel Hines. Als Helen Yardley vermoord wordt aangetroffen, gaat het politieonderzoek een belangrijke rol spelen. De beide verhaallijnen komen samen en resulteren uiteindelijk in een complexe plot.

De opzet van het boek vind ik origineel. Door het verhaal van Fliss Benson en het politieonderzoek van Sam Kombothekra en Simon Waterhouse te combineren met delen uit het boek van Helen Yardley, krantenartikelen en als begin een transcript van een interview krijgt het boek enigszins een documentair karakter. Het is een leuke manier om de lezer de informatie te geven die nodig is om uiteindelijk de complexe plot te kunnen volgen. Het interview en krantenartikel direct aan het begin maken nieuwsgierig en al meteen daarna zorgt de vreemde kaart met zestien getallen voor de nodige spanning. Sophie Hannah besteedt het meeste aandacht aan het karakter van Fliss Benson, een vrouw met een grandioos gebrek aan zelfvertrouwen die alles wat mis gaat op zichzelf betrekt en daardoor aan sympathie verliest. Soms wordt het ook een beetje ongeloofwaardig. Sam en Simon zijn de hoofdfiguren in het politieonderzoek maar ze sneeuwen een beetje onder in het aantal personages en relaties dat ze naast zich moeten dulden. Jammer, want de relatie tussen Proust enerzijds en Sam en Simon anderzijds is wel een boeiend gegeven dat met een betere uitwerking het verhaal net iets extra's had kunnen geven.

Eindconclusie: een spannende, originele thriller met een complexe plot. Wat mij betreft een aanbeveling, vier sterren.(less)

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Oct 17, 2012 S rated it 1 of 5 stars

I have read a few of Sophie Hannah's books and decided to give this one a go after reading some of the earlier reviews. I was left very disappointed. The story follows TV Producer, Fliss Benson, who becomes embroiled in a documentary about miscarriages of justice involving cot death mothers who have been accused of murdering their babies. There are a few of Hannah's other characters making a reappearance in this book - DC Simon Waterhouse, DS Sam Kombothekra and Charlie, Simon's partner in crime...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Marcia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked the plot line. I have not read a mystery with a similar story. Several mothers are accused of murdering their babies on some suspect facts by a particular doctor. The main three women in the book all get their verdicts overturned on appeal or are declared not guilty. Are they innocent or are they guilty? Was it murder or crib death or genetic abnormalities? The only problem with the book is the author throws in so many characters...the mothers, their husbands, neighbors, police, reporter...more

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May 18, 2013 Kingfan30 rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

On a rare occasion my husband stops moaning about the number of books I have and goes and buys me one, this was one he choose. I can't make my mind up about this book. At times it felt very chick lit, particularly where Fliss was concerned. On the other had it was trying to be a gripping thriller that was not quite pulled off in my opinion.

I loved the fact the chapters were in different formats (third and first person) and had the odd snippets from books, reports etc. it could have been done bet...more

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Aug 29, 2011 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

I very much enjoyed A Room Swept White. I found myself guessing the entire time, and did not find the plot twists predictable. The plot was engaging, and I found the story-line interesting.

On the other hand, this book portrays some annoyingly unrealistic characters. Fliss, the main character, jumps between being rather moronic and hysterical to being smart and level-headed throughout the book. Her character is all over the place.

Fliss's main love interest for the majority of the novel refuses to...more

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Jan 24, 2011 Marie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In A Room Swept White, Fliss Benson is a documentary film maker, who's just been given a project. For personal reasons, she doesn't want to work on the film, but she doesn't feel she has a choice. The project deals with SIDS babies where the mothers were accused (wrongly, as it turns out) of murdering their children. The doctor who testified at the trials is under suspicion for pointing the finger at the mothers in the first place. When Fliss receives a card with 16 numbers on it, she's stumped...more

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Aug 15, 2011 Hersilia Press rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a novel which despite being a work of fiction reminded me of significant real events in the recent past.

The story runs two parallel threads, one which sees TV producer Fliss Benson rising to the post of director of the company she works for, and at the same time landing her boss' job directing a documentary about women accused of killing their babies; the other thread following the story of some of the accused women and their families.

Felicity's boss, Laurie Nattrass, who was heavily inv...more This is a novel which despite being a work of fiction reminded me of significant real events in the recent past.

The story runs two parallel threads, one which sees TV producer Fliss Benson rising to the post of director of the company she works for, and at the same time landing her boss' job directing a documentary about women accused of killing their babies; the other thread following the story of some of the accused women and their families.

Felicity's boss, Laurie Nattrass, who was heavily involved in campaigning for the innocence of these women and even founded an organisation to this aim, has suddenly decided to move on to another company and leave Fliss in charge. As she starts work on the documentary, she gets to know more some of the people involved: the women, their husbands, and the paediatrician Judith Duffy who as expert witness in many of these trials seems to bear most of the responsibility for sending these women to jail.

With the second murder of one of the women it becomes clear that the two deaths are linked and Fliss also starts feeling in danger. Her work on the documentary, which she is determined to finish, will uncover strange and dark aspects of the personality of some characters as well as the culprit behind the murders.

I enjoyed the book and its “dizzingly complicated” plot and although I was expecting a different type of psychological tension I enjoyed the moral and psychological dilemmas which are more than touched upon in the book: miscarriages of justice, reliability of eye witnesses and expert witnesses, and the trauma of an innocent person not only losing a loved one but being accused of a heinous crime.

However, I found Fliss highly irritating despite the fact that she redeems herself in the end, and in common with another reviewer I was annoyed at the apparent recognition given to a scientifically discredited theory about vaccines. I did enjoy the very deep psychological insight into many characters as well as the writing style, which seems to be easily spanning between a Bridget-Jones-like single thirty-something, and a scientific report on causes of cot death. Sophie Hannah seems to be at ease with either style. Fliss’ occasional very funny comments contributed to lightening the mood from a very thoughtful topic.

The police characters are very much in the background, almost sketched, and the story isn’t as much about the investigation but it is told in the majority by the characters themselves: I found this aspect quite refreshing.

I will certainly read more of Sophie Hannah's books. (less)

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Jul 28, 2012 Melissa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-ebooks

The plot of this book is as crazy as the majority of the characters. And by crazy, I mean insane. I don't think there's a single character in this book who isn't messed up - from Narcissistic Laurie, to completely self-absorbed and flaky Fliss. Not to mention plain old psychotic Hines and self-delusional Ray. Even the cops are crazy. What is with Simon's mommy issues and refusal to sleep with his fiancée? Even the peripheral characters are nuts: cancer ridden Stella and her horse racing obsessed...more

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Aug 14, 2011 Natalie Foubister rated it 2 of 5 stars

utterly disappointed byt his book. the blurb on the back promised a gripping read about miscarriages of justice and intertwining stories. it took ages to get into the book, the characters were so one dimensional that i still cant distinguish between any of the police officers! i kept reading because i was waiting for the big twist or reveal at the end (out of sheer stubborn curiosity, not because the author had built up suspence). however NOTHING HAPPENED. I was still waiting and utterly perplex...more

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Aug 15, 2010 Melanie Garrett rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: just-not-for-me

Although there was a vitality to the prose, I got more than halfway through and felt completely bogged down in what was more back-story than story. Nothing much was happening, and that which did happen was far too improbable for me. I simply didn't believe a single character, and so their very thin motivations for increasingly preposterous acts left me weary. In fairness, I approached it with a lot of prejudice, as right up front I worried it was trying to cash in on the tragedy of Sally Clark b...more

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A Room Swept White (Spilling CID #5)

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