Book-review post!
This was apparently my ‘oh my god, mysteries are a thing!’ era of reading…
Louise Doughty – Apple Tree Yard
Confession: I had never read Louise Doughty’s fiction before, though I adore her writing-related non-fiction work, and this left me craving more. Our heroine is on trial for something – we’re not quite sure what, but it has to do with a little place in London called Apple Tree Yard. As the story unfolds, we discover that she’s been having an affair with the other individual on trial, a mysterious man who seems to be some kind of spy, who from the very beginning had a way about him that suggested a strange background (always one eye open for surveillance technology). There is nothing terribly unusual in the events of the story necessarily – it’s a love affair that leads to a crime of passion, or so it seems – but oh, god, it’s gorgeously done. The details are exquisite and it’s just an absolute joy to read (which is a strange thing to say, perhaps, about a book with so much darkness in it).
Rob Thomas & Jennifer Graham – Veronica Mars: The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line
TV tie-ins are often woeful, but this one benefits from being co-written by the show’s creator, Rob Thomas, whose background is in novels. The book picks up not so long after the movie ends, and seemed a fairly so-so read until it brings back a character who didn’t appear in the movie – raising the stakes in a really compelling way. The characterisation is well handled, and the dialogue is spot-on; the only thing is that you’d miss Veronica’s snarktastic inner monologues. Looking forward to reading the next one.
Declan Hughes – All The Things You Are
A could’ve-been-actress returns home from a trip where she may or may not have slept with her old lover, and finds her house empty of almost all its possessions, her husband Danny, and her two children. The house is about to be repossessed, and it’s clear she’s been lied to – but she’s also convinced she’s been left a sign that she can still trust him. (The snarky part of my brain feels that if this had been written by a woman, she’d be proved utterly wrong and the story would go in an entirely different direction.) And then the dead body of the family pet appears in the back yard. It’s not the last corpse the reader will encounter in this twisty-turny mystery, but despite the body count, the main focus of the story is on untangling the past and the secrets kept by Danny ever since a boyhood act of arson. Sharp dialogue and convincingly flawed but empathetic characters made me zip through this musings-on-identity-dressed-as-thriller.
Megan Abbott – The Fever
Megan Abbott writes about teenage girls fabulously. Her latest relates a strange seizure-inducing illness affecting a bunch of friends, and the secrets that unfurl in their school and town as it spreads. I didn’t love this as much as Dare Me (which has cheerleaders, for god’s sake), but the portrayals of teenage friendships and rivalries are smooth and compelling. Based on a real-life case of mass hysteria, it’s one of those books that’s about extraordinary things that illustrate so many of the ordinary everyday strains and tensions of being a teenage girl in today’s society. More of this please?
