Today’s focus is on plot, with reviews of a psychological thriller about identity and a sophisticated crime novel against a backdrop of African-American politics.
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Bella has led a sheltered life. Home-schooled by her eccentric parents behind the high walls of their rambling house, when she finally leaves for university she’s so frightened of the other students she’s relieved to find an arbour in the arms of the first man she meets. Thus she marries David, her tutor and twenty years her senior, and takes a job as a library assistant that he arranges on her behalf.
We first meet Bella and David on the eve of her mother’s funeral. Two days later, Bella receives some shocking news that calls into question her assumptions about her family. For the first time in her life, it seems, she decides to do things her way. Instead of sharing the contents of her letter with David, she sets off alone to St Ives on the Cornish coast to discover the hidden truth of her past.
In Her Wake is a coming-of-age story about identity and family secrets. While the story is original, I was reminded – in a good way – of various other novels I’ve reviewed: How to Make a Friend for the power of the imaginary friend; A Year of Marvellous Ways for the mermaids; and The Cold Cold Sea for reasons I’d better not say. For me, the novel could have stood more cuts to allow the reader space to assess for herself the character’s emotions. But it was worth staying the course for the twist at the end. Thanks to Orenda books for my review copy.
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It’s 1996 and Bill Clinton has just been returned to the White House while, in Houston, Texas, the campaign for the forthcoming mayoral collection is hotting up. The vote hinges on district 259, Pleasantville, an African-American neighbourhood founded back in 1949 by Sam Hathorne whose son, Axel, is standing for election as Houston’s first black mayor. But when a young woman goes missing, Axel’s nephew and campaign manager, Neale, has difficulty coming up with a convincing alibi. When he’s charged with murder, Sam is determined that local lawyer, Jay Porter, despite his inexperience with cases of homicide, will defend him. Stalled in a class-action against a polluting chemical plant, and still struggling to parent his two children while grieving for his wife, circumstances conspire to persuade Jay to take the case.
While generally not enamoured of the twisty-turney plotting of the classic crime novel, I did enjoy Attica Locke’s previous novel, The Cutting Season, set in a former slave plantation reinvented as a theme park/wedding venue in a bizarre Americanisation of the English country house novel. My struggles keeping pace with the wide cast of characters and complex back story (some of which might have been explored in her debut, Black Water Rising, which I understand also features Jay Porter) was well compensated by the insights gained into the civil rights movement and local government. The poignancy of Jay’s home circumstances, and the compromises and corruption within political families, also kept my interest. My sole irritation with the novel was the all too frequent product placement or brand naming – although Mr A informs me that’s not unusual in American crime – most of which were unfamiliar and therefore lost on me. Thanks to Serpent’s Tail for my review copy.
We first meet Bella and David on the eve of her mother’s funeral. Two days later, Bella receives some shocking news that calls into question her assumptions about her family. For the first time in her life, it seems, she decides to do things her way. Instead of sharing the contents of her letter with David, she sets off alone to St Ives on the Cornish coast to discover the hidden truth of her past.
In Her Wake is a coming-of-age story about identity and family secrets. While the story is original, I was reminded – in a good way – of various other novels I’ve reviewed: How to Make a Friend for the power of the imaginary friend; A Year of Marvellous Ways for the mermaids; and The Cold Cold Sea for reasons I’d better not say. For me, the novel could have stood more cuts to allow the reader space to assess for herself the character’s emotions. But it was worth staying the course for the twist at the end. Thanks to Orenda books for my review copy.
############################################################
It’s 1996 and Bill Clinton has just been returned to the White House while, in Houston, Texas, the campaign for the forthcoming mayoral collection is hotting up. The vote hinges on district 259, Pleasantville, an African-American neighbourhood founded back in 1949 by Sam Hathorne whose son, Axel, is standing for election as Houston’s first black mayor. But when a young woman goes missing, Axel’s nephew and campaign manager, Neale, has difficulty coming up with a convincing alibi. When he’s charged with murder, Sam is determined that local lawyer, Jay Porter, despite his inexperience with cases of homicide, will defend him. Stalled in a class-action against a polluting chemical plant, and still struggling to parent his two children while grieving for his wife, circumstances conspire to persuade Jay to take the case.
While generally not enamoured of the twisty-turney plotting of the classic crime novel, I did enjoy Attica Locke’s previous novel, The Cutting Season, set in a former slave plantation reinvented as a theme park/wedding venue in a bizarre Americanisation of the English country house novel. My struggles keeping pace with the wide cast of characters and complex back story (some of which might have been explored in her debut, Black Water Rising, which I understand also features Jay Porter) was well compensated by the insights gained into the civil rights movement and local government. The poignancy of Jay’s home circumstances, and the compromises and corruption within political families, also kept my interest. My sole irritation with the novel was the all too frequent product placement or brand naming – although Mr A informs me that’s not unusual in American crime – most of which were unfamiliar and therefore lost on me. Thanks to Serpent’s Tail for my review copy.
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