Tag Archives: ARC

Review | Hanging Hill, Mo Hayder

Posted on by
7

The only other Mo Hayder book I’ve read was Pig Island, and it really creeped me out. I also found it gross, though I can’t remember exactly why (and to be honest, I don’t want to remember either). So I approached Hanging Hill with interest, but also a bit of trepidation.

There was a mystery in Hanging Hill — a teenaged girl was murdered — but the story really revolved around the lives of two sisters: Zoe, one of the detectives investigating the murder, and Sally, a divorcee whose daughter is the victim’s classmate.

From my experience with Pig Island, I was expecting a horrifying tale. Instead I got a very touching one, horrifying not in the gross, almost supernaturally creepy way of Pig Island, but in a much more basic, emotional way of seeing the lives of characters you care for turn out horribly. I felt bad for Sally, who was doing her best to take care of her daughter Millie. All Millie wants is to fit in with her wealthier classmates, and this leads to her making some bad decisions, which in turn forces Sally to take a job as housekeeper for a man with shady connections. It’s a difficult situation, and at times it felt like a horror movie, where you know Sally’s decisions will only lead to more trouble, and yet feel as helpless as she does in finding another way out.

Zoe is almost as sympathetic a character — strong-willed and hot-tempered, she sometimes came off as too defensive and jealous of the beautiful psychological profiler. She gets very involved in her cases, and Hayder shows how Zoe almost literally tries to identify with the victims. For example, the victim in this case was gagged with a tennis ball, so Zoe puts a tennis ball in her own mouth and forces herself to keep it in for as long as she can, to imagine how the victim must have felt in her final moments. Zoe also has some skeletons in her closet, and when the skeletons in her past somehow connect with the problems of Sally’s present, the momentum picks up and you can just see both sisters’ lives going out of control. The siblings are estranged, because of an incident in their childhood, and at times, I just wanted to yell at them to make up and get back together already, because it would help solve both their problems.

I especially love the Millie storyline. On one hand, I was annoyed by her for getting into such deep financial trouble just so she can join a school trip. On the other hand, I can only begin to imagine what a terrifying situation she was in, especially for a teenager, and I was more annoyed at the father (Sally’s ex) for not bailing her and Sally out. I loved the storyline of Millie being in love with the hot guy (who of course was in love with someone else), when Millie actually had a nerdy friend already in love with her. Sally promised the nerdy friend that someday, when Millie grew up, she’d see him in a new light. I thought that was sweet.

The mystery itself was pretty difficult to solve, and the ending took me completely by surprise. I thought the final scene was a particularly gutsy way to end the book. I actually checked if there were additional pages I’d missed — surely Hayder wouldn’t end it with that! — then, finding none, thought, “Good for you, Mo Hayder.” Hanging Hill takes a while to build up — it focuses so much more on character development than mystery solving — but once it gets going, the momentum just keeps building, and it ends with a bang.

Review | The Decision, Penny Vincenzi

Posted on by
1

What a treat it is to read a Penny Vincenzi novel! The blurb from Daily Express likens The Decision to a “glass of Champagne: bubbly, moreish and you don’t want it to end.” I’ve never read Vincenzi before, but I was in the mood for a Champagne-type novel. True enough, The Decision was like a bubble bath of a book — luxurious, frothy and oh so indulgent.

To be clear, the book tackled a lot of very serious issues as well, particularly women’s rights and the role of a mother. It had its emotional moments, and at times, I was literally outraged at how Matt (the hero) treated Eliza (the protagonist). However, all these were framed within the story of a delightful Mad Men world of fashion, travel and romance. Escapist fiction with big ideas — love it!

To tell you more about The Decision, here’s a video I found on Vincenzi’s website, where Vincenzi herself tells us about the book and reads some excerpts:

Penny Vincenzi – The Decision from BeyondTheBlurb on Vimeo.

(source: http://www.pennyvincenzi.com/thedecision.html)

From the prologue and the back cover, we already know what’s going to happen to Matt and Eliza’s relationship — it won’t work out, and they’ll have a messy custody battle over their daughter Emmie. To my surprise, Matt and Eliza get married almost halfway through my 758-page ARC. Forget any concern about spoilers — the custody battle alluded to in the prologue only about 3/4 through the book, so you’re reading hundreds of pages about Matt and Eliza’s romance, with the full knowledge that it won’t last.

To my even greater surprise, it didn’t matter at all that I knew how it was going to turn out — I still had a great time watching it unfold. A lot of that is because of the world Vincenzi created, filled with fascinating characters you can’t help but root for. Take Eliza, for example. Raised in a wealthy family that just wants her to marry rich and have babies, Eliza prefers to be a successful career woman in the fashion industry. She has a natural instinct for fashion, and I loved watching her organize fashion shoots and come up with ideas for magazine features. It’s a glamourous world, and Vincenzi’s writing just wraps us up in it.

I especially love that despite her ambition, Eliza agrees to give up her career to raise a family with Matt. I didn’t agree with her decision, and in fact Eliza’s reluctance to do so was very evident. However, I love the complexity it added to her character. She wasn’t even a starry-eyed Bella Swan type; rather, she was a mature yet vulnerable young woman, like Julia Stiles’ character in Mona Lisa Smile, who wanted to make her marriage work. I didn’t agree with her decision, and given how unhappy it made her, I couldn’t really respect it, but I did sympathize with it, and with her. I especially, especially love that, even after having made the decision to give up her career, Eliza clearly struggles with it every day. I can imagine how many women in the 60s did face that dilemma, and I love how textured and complex Eliza’s character was.

Then there’s Matt. Ambitious, handsome, with a huge chip on his shoulder about his working class background, he was appealing as he fought to make his way in real estate, and he got annoying when he married Eliza. Team Eliza all the way! That, of course, is me reacting as a woman. Matt’s old-fashioned attitudes about gender roles were very apt for the time period, and I cheered every time Eliza or another woman (usually his sister Scarlett or his business partner Louise) stood up to him.

Beyond the romance, however, the female characters really shone in this book. Louise is an even stronger, more ambitious, woman than Eliza, and her tough negotiation tactics with Matt and other male colleagues made me cheer. You go, girl! Reading about Scarlett’s love life felt like watching a soap opera, and I love the man she eventually ended up with.

The pace slowed down somewhat once we got to the custody case. From a fun, lighthearted read, the book switches over to a more sombre, emotional tone. I was still definitely Team Eliza in the case, and I felt her horror as she looked back at various incidents in her past that seemed innocuous then but that could now lead to her losing her child. I also realized, as she did, the financial impact giving up her career had on her ability to fight her husband in a legal battle. It was horrible seeing the confident, successful woman at the beginning of the novel turn so vulnerable, even broken, in court, and I wished, absolutely wished, that she would be granted custody. I love how Vincenzi pulled together so many minor plot threads from the rest of the book, and made them all relevant to the climactic court case.

The Decision is an absolute treat of a book. It’s a long novel, but the 700 pages zip by really quickly. Vincenzi whisks you away to another world — more exciting and glamourous, and yet more difficult for women — and it’s so much fun just to sit back and let yourself be entertained. I love how engaged I was in the lives of these characters, and how much I either cheered for them or wanted them to go down. The book also made me very, very grateful for all the feminists of the era, who fought hard so that I, and other women, can enjoy all these little freedoms we take for granted.

 

Review | The Retribution, Val McDermid

Posted on by
1

I first read Val McDermid a few years ago, when I was really into psychological mystery thrillers. I read The Mermaids Singing, and, coming from Alex Delaware and Alan Gregory, found Tony Hill’s story really disquieting. The torture scene disturbed me so much I stayed away from other McDermid books, even though I admired her skill as a writer.

A few months ago, I found a copy of Mermaids at a library book sale, and thought to have another go at it. It was as dark and well-written as I remembered, though I no longer got as freaked out over the torture scene. Frankly, that in itself is disquieting. I blame Lisbeth Salander.

Bright side is that I then felt ready to read The Retribution, latest in the Tony Hill/Carol Jordan series. Retribution brings back Jacko Vance, a serial killer first introduced in Wire in the Blood and, from what I hear, one of Tony Hill’s most evil antagonists. Retribution is very much a series book, building on developments from other books. As a relatively new McDermid reader, I loved reading about deepening relationships and emotional scars from past events without feeling lost, and I can imagine how much richer an experience it would have been for someone who’s followed Tony and Carol through the past dozen or so books.

In Retribution, Jacko Vance breaks out of prison and is out to seek revenge against the people who captured him in the first place. He’s a malevolent and horrific figure, and even without having read Wire, I can understand the depth of Tony’s fear at learning of his escape.

More interesting, however, is that Vance’s break from prison is the catalyst for a story that delves really deeply into Tony Hill’s past and his psyche. Tony is a bit of an anti-hero. He’s so good at psychological profiling because he can really get into the mindset of a psychopath. Much like a broodier version of Dexter Morgan, Tony mostly “acts” at being human, acting much as he observes humans are supposed to act. The line between profiler and psychopath is so delicate in Tony Hill, and I love how Retribution reveals so much about Tony’s past, about his relationship with his cruel mother and about the motherly figure who kept him just this side of human.

We also meet Tony’s mother in Retribution, and I love how formidable a figure she is! I feel bad for Tony having to grow up with such a cold-hearted woman, but she’s definitely a fascinating character. I love the development of Tony and Carol’s relationship in this book. Jacko Vance’s actions threatened not just their romance, but also their friendship, and I was cheering them on all the way.

If you’re a long-time Val McDermid fan, you’ll definitely love Retribution for the way it explores character story arcs. If you’re relatively new to McDermid, Retribution is a good place to jump right into her work; I found it fascinating. Either way, McDermid is definitely a master at crafting an exciting psychological crime mystery/thriller, and Retribution is a gripping read.