Adult Fiction – Page 42

‘I Let You Go’ – Clare Mackintosh

This is, definitely, a book that you want to know nothing else about – other than what is given in the blurb – before you read it.

The opening description of the accident that changes Jenna Gray’s life is heart-wrenching. I was so immersed in the book that the ‘astonishing twist’ referred to on the cover took me totally by surprise and I had to go back and re-read a section as I thought I’d missed something. Once I realised I hadn’t, I was gripped and desperate to find out just what was going on!

Sometimes a book comes along that you want to devour. This was one of those books.

‘Broken Harbour’ – Tana French

I had been introduced to this author by a colleague in work. ‘Faithful Place’ intrigued me and was certainly an enjoyable foray into crime writing. The blurb for this gave little away, but I was hooked by the idea that someone who was murdered would have, even inadvertently, done something to ‘invite it in’.

I couldn’t resist checking out reviews on Amazon, and I’m not giving anything away to reveal that the novel opens with the deaths of two children and their father being discovered, and their mother being taken to intensive care. What follows is a detailed and thorough account of the investigation into the murder case by Scorcher Kennedy, Dublin’s star detective.

From the opening pages I felt like I trusted our narrator; he was a character that I wanted to do well. He was not without his flaws, and the effects on him and his personal life of the investigation were compelling reading.

I was less sure about his partner, rookie Richie Curran, but I felt the developing relationship between the two men was engaging, and allowed French to explain some of the procedure involved in the investigation without patronising us. At times the total immersion into the experience was far from comfortable, but I could not put the book down. Once it became clear that there were two suspects, neither of whom seemed completely plausible, I was desperately trying to work out what had happened. I didn’t come close!

‘The Paying Guests’ – Sarah Waters

Having purchased this as a gift, my interest had been piqued and I couldn’t resist picking up a copy from our local library. Although some time since I’d read anything by Sarah Waters, I thought I knew a little of what to expect. While that was the case to a certain extent, I was totally unprepared for what I got.

I don’t want to reveal too much. Reviews are widely available, so I’m not giving anything away by talking about the basic premise of the novel. It’s 1922 and the effects of war are everywhere. We are quickly drawn into this once genteel environment, on the cusp of great change, as Frances Wray and her widowed mother prepare to open their home to lodgers Len and Lillian Barber, the ‘paying guests’ referred to in the title.

Although the first section felt slow at times, I found the attention to detail absorbing and I was fascinated by the way in which Waters immerses us completely in this past world. As the inevitable occurs, I was more taken by the way in which Waters focused on the consequences of these shifting relationships. I certainly was not prepared for the two actions – one planned; the other not – that become so pivotal to the novel. From that moment on this book became something far more appealing and I, literally, could not put the book down.