Gregory Hall

I loved the characters and the suspense in this book, plus very strong emotions. Great underlying theme about the long term impact of childhood trauma. However, I felt it could have been better. First, too much description for several pages at the start plus overly flowery language put me off and I set it aside for over 6 months, may never have come back to it but finally gave it a second chance. Second, there is a way over long part late in the book discussing the effects of an experimental drug - I had to skim through most of it, way too much detail. Third, I thought the ending was quite rushed. I would have liked more on how and why things ended the way they did. Still I would recommend this book. Lots in common with Robert Goddard's excellent novels, especially the number of unexpected twists and turns in the plot.… (más)

I picked this off the shelf at the library purely because I liked the spine, the cover and the story description. It reads a bit like a first novel with some rookie mistakes like repetitive usage of words and phrases and the sex drive of the protagonist is blatantly wish-fulfillment-y, but overall wasn’t terrible. I do have to say one thing to writers though - if you’re going to make your main character a completely different nationality from yours, get the details right. Especially how they talk. And even more especially Brits with an American character. My American born and raised sister and brother in law lived in England for years and I never heard them use a Britishism in place of an American term. Not once. In my experience people don’t just lose a lifetime of language overnight. Language is formed early and is pretty hard wired after that. Oh sure now and then I think a term will get thrown in because a person can become absorbed in a time and place; immersion I think they call it, but to replace an entire vocabulary? I don’t think so. Instead writers, make your character one you understand. Especially if his or her nationality has no bearing on the story.

In this book we have an American woman (Mary) who marries a Brit (Gregory) relatively late in life. She doesn’t think or speak in the least like an American despite being raised in New York, going to college in New York and working for a New York-based book publisher. After Gregory’s sudden death she finds that he wasn’t the man she thought he was. The hints, clues and connections in the book are delivered well and the pacing is good. It’s not an action-driven book and I think the writer made Mary too weepy and eaten by self-doubt. She constantly thinks other people think she’s crazy and she cries way too damn much. But the way the plot comes together and resolves is satisfying. Of course everything is connected to everything else and the cover up is pretty thick. It was fun, but I kept getting distracted by how non-American Mary was. There wasn’t any reason to make her one.

Things an American would really say -

We don’t have them (We’ve not got them)
Trash bags (dusbin liners)
Dishes (crockery)
Boxes (cartons)
Mothballs (naptha)
Bag/Duffel/tote bag (holdall)
What nerve (what cheek)
Liquor cabinet (drinks cupboard)
Bottle of perfume (bottle of scent)
two -lane road (dual carriageway)
Make decisions (take decisions)
Tylenol (paracetamol)… (más)

A suicide letter from a young woman with everything to live for plunges her sister into a sinister investigation -- uncovering the shared past they tried so hard to conceal. In this complex mystery which will delight all fans of Robert Goddard, the horrors of the past disrupt the lives of two sisters -- and of everyone who is close to them. Catriona is a well-respected academic, specialising in the Romantic Poets at a prestigious London college. Everything revolves around her work, leaving no space for personal relationships. She's the exact opposite of her sister Flora, who enjoys a rural existence in the Cotswolds with her scientist husband and teenage daughter. Then Catriona receives Flora's suicide letter. Catriona races to the picturesque village, but there is no body to be found. Has Flora really killed herself, or is this an excuse to vanish -and if so, why? The sisters have spent their adult lives trying to bury what happened in their childhood, but Catriona must now face a very different kind of oblivion before the truth comes out.

An unusual plot well-handled, partly set in the Cotswolds, partly in London but with roots in Scotland.… (más)