Richmond borough is blessed with authors. Here Fiona Adams, Richard Nye, Jane McGowan and Brooke Theis review some recent publications
One Little Mistake by Emma Curtis; published by Transworld Publishers, £7.99
Last year within these pages [of the Richmond and Barnes Magazine] I reviewed How to Make A Friend by Fleur Smithwick, a debut novel and psychological thriller centred around a childhood invisible friend. Now writing under the name Emma Curtis, Smithwick has produced a far superior second novel – written in the same genre – in One Little Mistake.
Curtis’s protagonist Vicky appears to have a picture-perfect life, comprising one fit and attractive husband, three children, a career she loves and a best friend who has supported her through the thick and thin.
As the novel unfolds, however, the shiny veneer tarnishes. Post-natal depression, a tricky childhood and a craving for affection battle for attention. Best friend Amber does not, it transpires, prove to be as dependable as Vicky thought and the perfect world she has created for herself begins to unravel.
Which brings us back to Vicky’s ‘mistake’. This seems pretty obvious to start with as Curtis presents us with two very clear moral dilemmas, but over the course of the story she subtly weaves in other options to keep us guessing. The past and present are skillfully knitted together until the grisly, peep-through-your-fingers dénouement is reached.
There were one or two unconvincing plot twists that I found hard to swallow, but aside from those, One Little Mistake will keep you gripped until the end. Curtis shows here her growing flair for psychological fiction, but I think her greatest skill has been taking life choices familiar to us all and showing how easily they can destroy us.
I predict hot debate in book clubs up and down the country. Just think carefully before inviting your best friend to join in. Review by Fiona Adams
A Thousand Paper Birds by Tor Udall; published by Bloomsbury, £8.99
A few lines is all it takes. Two pages, at most, to lose yourself in the wonder of A Thousand Paper Birds: a gorgeous September song, part meditation on love and loss, part devotional hymn to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. It is a world of elisions: time and eternity, illusion and reality, presence and absence, substance and shadow; a tale of aching, empty spaces and roads diverging in a wood; a wistful affirmation of the subconscious power of choice to shape our ends.
All these themes interlace like branches, as tightly woven as the lives of the five main protagonists. Jonah grieves for Audrey, his late wife, whose fatal car crash may or may not have been suicide and whose diary is an impact all of its own. Numbed, he begins an affair with the deeply damaged Chloe, an artist with a passion for origami (hence the title) who later discovers the diary. Then there is Harry, a gardener with a deep, abiding affection for the trees of Kew, and a little girl called Milly who wanders unaccompanied around the Gardens. What is the truth behind this pair’s mysterious evanescence? And how do their stories collide with those of the other three?
Most striking of all are the Gardens themselves, the kaleidoscopic backcloth for so much of what takes place. Hyperbole beckons: “Udall has done for Kew what Hardy did for Wessex or Wordsworth for the Lakes.” Not quite, perhaps. But as the seasons and stories unfold, the glorious acres are remapped in the mind, layered with an acutely sharpened beauty that transcends their original design.
A Thousand Paper Birds is as rare as redwoods: a novel of astonishing maturity in the hands of a debutant; a young sapling with the splendour of an ancient oak. On page after page of precise, exquisite prose the book seems to hold its breath, as if the slightest sound might awaken the reader from its spell. As with Chloe’s engrossing paper art, there is beauty in the gaps; in the things implied, as much as in those expressed.
Love, death, redemption, grief, hope: these are the grandest themes, the big, spreading trees at the centre of the human garden. And, like the tender and talented arborist that she so clearly is, Tor Udall has pruned them to perfection. Review by Richard Nye
The Housekeeper by Suellen Dainty; published by Washington Square Press, £8.99
Anne Morgan is a successful girl-about-town; she works in one of London’s top restaurants and is in what she believes to be a loving relationship with Anton, her celebrity chef boss. But after discovering Anton has been cheating on her for months, Anne’s life suddenly falls apart, forcing her to seek solace first in the bottle and then in the musings of domestic goddess, blogger and author Emma Helmsley on whose daily “Words of Wisdom", Anne comes to depend.
During her regular checks on Emma’s Instagram feed, Anne spots a post which suggests Emma may be looking to employ a housekeeper and Anne can’t believe her luck when she is offered the job. The role takes her behind the scenes into the world of her new-found heroine, Emma’s media darling psychologist husband Rob and their two high-achieving teenage children Jack and Lily. But predictably life is not as rosy as Emma paints to her millions of social media followers and Anne, who has secrets of her own, soon discovers that some very dark mysteries lurk beneath the polished surface of the celebrity power couple.
Billed as a ‘nail-biting psychological thriller’, I felt The Housekeeper didn’t really hit the mark. Yes, there are moments of tension and a couple of good plot twists, but the main riddle is whether Anne will ever find out who her father is – so you will be disappointed if you are looking for any juicy Girl on the Train-style crimes to solve. I also struggled to like any of the characters – Anne seems to lurch from one childish crush to another, predictably looking for someone to fill the gap left by her late mother, while Emma and her clan are all thoroughly unpalatable.
It was however, an easy-to-read page-turner that proves categorically that the grass is not always greener… Review by Jane McGowan
Obsession by Amanda Robson; published by Harper Collins, £7.99
I wasn’t certain what genre Obsession would fall under and, having read it, I’m still unsure. Deception, romance, mystery and crime all play a part but essentially it isa tale based on a questionabout infidelity that has terrible consequences.
Uncomfortable at times, but always intriguing, the book is made up of short chapters, each narrated by one of the four main characters. This makes for captivating reading and is a clever device if used to full effect, but Robsoncould have done with making each voice more distinctive,as in places the narrative of one seeps into the next almost seamlessly.
Obsession touches on serious topics, but the reader is left wishing they had been delved into more deeply. For example, the exploration of modern Christianity fell a little flat; it pervaded two of the characters, but to no significant outcome. The struggles of depression and substance abuse on the other hand were dealt with in both a realistic and sensitive manner, as was the confusion that comes with mental illness and its inexplicable nature.
Sadly, at a time when the gender pay gap is still so prevalent, it was disappointing to discover that the female characters did not come across very strongly, particularly when created by a female author. Perhaps it was deliberate but it seemed clichéd to me that the two males in the book were a doctor and a fireman while the women were nurses.
However, Obsession does offer a compelling insight into the medical profession and the medical references were convincing.
Finally, the unravelling crescendo towards the endof the novel is truly gripping and quite unexpected. This made for a far more dynamic read and by then I couldn’t put the book down. Review by Brooke Theis
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Beijing Smog by Ian Williams (Troubador)
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From Source to Sea: Notes from a 215-mile walk along the River Thames by Tom Chessyre (Summersdale)
A charming book from The Times’ travel editor Tom Chessyre who also lives in Mortlake. Here he walks the Thames’ from Gloucestershire to Kent, describing the river and its environs as well as providing quirky facts along the way.
The Summerhouse by the Sea by Jenny Oliver (Harper Collins)
Perfect for a late summer sojourn but if no break is planned, worry not as this will transport you straight to the beach. Ava returns to her grandmother’s summerhouse in Spain for a well-earned break and finds a new beginning takes her by surprise.
When Your Life Depends On It: Extreme Decision Making Lessons from the Antarctic by Brad Borkan and David Hirzel (Terra Nova Press)
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