A traumatic discovery
Documentary film-maker Alex is looking for a unique angle on which to base her latest project. Although her debut film won an award, her agent Dan was not enamoured by her last offering and is now pushing her to come up with something more original for her next film. So, when Dan receives an anonymous postcard suggesting they try the Yorkshire coastal village of Blackwood Bay as a location, he is keen for Alex to check it out – especially when he learns that a young local girl had committed suicide and two other girls had disappeared. A mystery he finds too good to ignore.
Already familiar with the place, Alex is not keen to return and tries to dissuade Dan from choosing it. Although she spent some of her childhood in Blackwood Bay, her memories of it are a blank. All she knows is something bad happened to her there, forcing her to run away and change her name; something which her mind still refuses to acknowledge. Unfortunately, Channel Four – the network financing her documentary – wants the film to be shot in the north. She cannot afford to lose the commission, and so eventually agrees to go. Besides, not only would it be an opportunity to find out what happened to the girls, but it might also help to rekindle her own memories.
However, Alex’s return to Blackwood Bay does not start well. Being mid-winter, the Yorkshire weather is atrocious. With snow covering the road, Alex’s car journey soon becomes hazardous until, as she crests a hill, she is confronted with a dead sheep in the road. Breaking hard to avoid it, the car then skids on the icy ground and ends up in a ditch, leaving her stranded miles from her destination. Fortunately, she is rescued by one of the villagers, who is on his way back to Blackwood Bay and also happens to be living in a cottage close to Alex’s rented one.
Not wanting to upset the villagers by focussing on the dead and missing girls, Alex convinces people she is making a documentary about life in the village by setting up a website on which they can post everyday videos of themselves. However, although most people embrace the idea, some are suspicious of her motives. Ignoring their attempts to dissuade her from staying, Alex remains determined to uncover her past. However, when she starts to ask questions around the village, she soon realises whatever happened to her as a child may still be happening to other girls.
As the memories of her own ordeal gradually come into focus, so does the web of secrets and horrific practices that drove Alex away in the first place. Eventually she finds herself fully confronted by her traumatic past.
‘Final Cut’ is a cleverly written and thoroughly engrossing thriller, which is both chilling and complex. Right from the start, the reader is drawn into a mystery which has haunted the novel’s protagonist, Alex, since she was a young teenager. With each character apparently harbouring secrets, everyone is a possible suspect. However, just when it seems the mystery is about to be solved, a sudden twist in the story sends everything spiralling off in another direction.
With some of the chapters alternating between the past and the present, Alex’s backstory is gradually and tantalisingly unveiled. With the tension sustained until the very end, it is only then the full extent of her childhood trauma is finally revealed. The ending when it comes is both shocking and original.
Already familiar with the place, Alex is not keen to return and tries to dissuade Dan from choosing it. Although she spent some of her childhood in Blackwood Bay, her memories of it are a blank. All she knows is something bad happened to her there, forcing her to run away and change her name; something which her mind still refuses to acknowledge. Unfortunately, Channel Four – the network financing her documentary – wants the film to be shot in the north. She cannot afford to lose the commission, and so eventually agrees to go. Besides, not only would it be an opportunity to find out what happened to the girls, but it might also help to rekindle her own memories.
However, Alex’s return to Blackwood Bay does not start well. Being mid-winter, the Yorkshire weather is atrocious. With snow covering the road, Alex’s car journey soon becomes hazardous until, as she crests a hill, she is confronted with a dead sheep in the road. Breaking hard to avoid it, the car then skids on the icy ground and ends up in a ditch, leaving her stranded miles from her destination. Fortunately, she is rescued by one of the villagers, who is on his way back to Blackwood Bay and also happens to be living in a cottage close to Alex’s rented one.
Not wanting to upset the villagers by focussing on the dead and missing girls, Alex convinces people she is making a documentary about life in the village by setting up a website on which they can post everyday videos of themselves. However, although most people embrace the idea, some are suspicious of her motives. Ignoring their attempts to dissuade her from staying, Alex remains determined to uncover her past. However, when she starts to ask questions around the village, she soon realises whatever happened to her as a child may still be happening to other girls.
As the memories of her own ordeal gradually come into focus, so does the web of secrets and horrific practices that drove Alex away in the first place. Eventually she finds herself fully confronted by her traumatic past.
‘Final Cut’ is a cleverly written and thoroughly engrossing thriller, which is both chilling and complex. Right from the start, the reader is drawn into a mystery which has haunted the novel’s protagonist, Alex, since she was a young teenager. With each character apparently harbouring secrets, everyone is a possible suspect. However, just when it seems the mystery is about to be solved, a sudden twist in the story sends everything spiralling off in another direction.
With some of the chapters alternating between the past and the present, Alex’s backstory is gradually and tantalisingly unveiled. With the tension sustained until the very end, it is only then the full extent of her childhood trauma is finally revealed. The ending when it comes is both shocking and original.
No comments have been added yet.
