What We Did In The Storm by Tina Baker
Everyone brings their secrets to the island…
On the beautiful and windswept island of Tresco, two worlds live side by side. The wealthy visitors come by helicopter to stay at their lavish time-share properties. The estate staff travel by boat, and work all hours to keep them happy, to keep the money flowing in. But while the blue skies and savage waves make the island seem a wild paradise, under the surface the inhabitants are concealing more than they dare reveal. The truths about their marriages, their love affairs, and what they do in the darkness while their neighbours are sleeping.
As black clouds come rolling in and a storm hits the island, truths and rumours begin to tumble out, wreaking terrible damage. In the midst of the tempest, two women are attacked and one goes missing. The secrets of this fragile community can no longer be hidden if it hopes to survive. The islanders must finally reveal what they did in the storm, no matter the cost.
From the #1 bestselling author of Call Me Mummy comes a dark and luscious thriller, perfect for readers of Harriet Tyce, Amanda Jennings and Louise Candlish.
My Review
What We Did In The Storm is typical Tina style, full of dreadful, dysfunctional characters, but we can’t help loving them (well some of them) anyway. I always thought the Scilly Isles was a quiet, peaceful place until I read this book!
And there are a lot of characters – I still don’t know who Fiona is – but I soon got to know the rest. We have Hannah the sexy barmaid, who works for Alison and Bobby in the local (and only) pub on the island of Tresco. Fifty-plus Beatrice who is a bit like Margot from The Good Life (if Margot was permanently bladdered to use Ted’s expression), her son Kit who falls in love with Hannah, but obviously Bea doesn’t think she’s good enough and Charlotte, who is Beatrice’s Instagram-obsessed, posy, pouty goddaughter and is after Kit. Beatrice approves. Of course she does.
Then we have Sam and his wife Christie, who is convinced that Sam was having it away with Hannah, Thor (real name Alec) who’s a total weirdo, his gossipy cousin nurse Kelly from St Mary’s (or is she his aunt?), husband and wife John and Mary-Ann (another weird lot) and a host of other more minor characters. Are you keeping up?
Oh and I mustn’t forget Primrose, Beatrice’s dog: ‘….some sort of chihuahua, crossed with a gremlin and possibly a feather duster…..how she (Beatrice) adores the dog. She always wanted a daughter.’
There are basically two timelines – before the storm and after the storm. The story opens with Ted the boatman seeing two women on the cliffs, who look like they are dancing or bladdered, but when he looks again, there is only one up there. So who went missing and what happened to her?
To read this with my online book club, and Tina accompanying us, was the perfect way to basically digest the story in ten ‘staves’. If I had the whole book I would have devoured it in one go. It’s clever, hilarious at times, dark and so well written – I can’t wait for the next one.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
Tina Baker, the daughter of a window cleaner and fairground traveller, worked as a journalist and broadcaster for thirty years and is probably best known as a television critic for the BBC and GMTV. After so many hours watching soaps gave her a widescreen bum, she got off it and won Celebrity Fit Club. She now avoids writing-induced DVT by working as a Fitness Instructor.
Call Me Mummy was Tina’s first novel, inspired by her own unsuccessful attempts to become a mother. Despite the grief of that, she’s not stolen a child – so far. But she does rescue cats, whether they want to be rescued or not. What We Did In The Storm is her fourth novel.
