God what a pointless cast of characters! I would not like to inhabit their society. Why, you ask? Because no one thinks or acts normally.
Take this for example, there are two women who are barely civil to each other, openly insult each other and cause serious pain with their rude talk. Who are they? Sisters-in-law and ‘love each other’. OK. There exist another two women who cannot stand to lose to each other, always try to be the first and if one is first where ‘the other had a right to be first’ feel guilty. Also snap at each other, sure. Who are they? Sisters. There is a man who feels very reluctant to have sex with a woman because he does not like to do it in public with an audience and ‘she is the audience in this case’. Who are they? Friends with benefits? No, husband and wife, of course. Had enough?
No? Then try this. A lady is rich and ‘does not want to embarrass her family’ by revealing her wealth and ‘making them jealous’ so she pretends that a house she owns is ‘rented for the week’ and invites them for a party. Others have sex with everyone in sight.
One or two odd characters in a book may add colour to it and make it unique but if everyone who walks into the story is a weirdo, you don’t want to read any further. If you had similar feelings, stop reading after the first twenty pages. It does not stop until the end.
Let us go to the story.
The narrator Amber Hewerdine goes to Ginny Saxon, to be hypnotized out of a bad habit of hers. Ginny tries to make her relaxed but the girl does not feel this has any impact at all. She is full of sarcastic thoughts throughout the process. But then odd things happen. Ginny says that she said something she did not. She remembers words from another visitor’s diary (Kind, Cruel, Kind of Cruel) that she could not have known at all. She decides to snoop on that lady’s diary when she has left the car open. Sees that she was right, before being caught by the owner. The owner lady ‘gently’ asks Ginny to go home ‘until they meet again’.
She goes to collect her children. A cop comes and says that she is wanted in the investigation of the murder of Katherine Allen.
The story moves abruptly to another. Jo and Neil Utting hire a big house for a Christmas party. Jo does not go to bed at the same time as Neil, which is puzzling. Then they abruptly reappear two days later, with absolutely no explanation whatsoever.
Scene changes again: Constable Simon Waterhouse is investigating the murder of Katharine Allan. Katherine was the woman Amber met and Amber remembers words that were not written in the note book until after Amber had seen it. Interesting.
Amber is interrogated by the police but she also is now obsessed with discovering where she saw the paper. She things it is in Little Orange, the villa where her sister Jo disappeared and reappeared and her husband warns her that revealing details of that will also reveal to the police about the crime they committed. Interesting? Kind of lame, especially due to the narration.
Then comes a confusing account of how Bond, a pub owner wanted to open the pub for extended hours and the licence was blocked by Sophie due to town’s resistance and when Sophie had a change of heart, she was murdered. Amber seems to be mixed up “coincidentally” in two murders now, as Amber is Sophie’s friend and the one who persuaded Sophie to change her mind. Nonie and Dinah, are really Sophie’s kids whom Amber is trying to adopt and is caring for.
Then there are confusing stories where Amber is reserntful of Jo, her insomnia kicks up and some pointless conversations happen.
Jo and Amber seem to have a very cruel relationship. It is one thing to be frank and forceful and another to deliberately wound each other, which both of the sisters seem to enjoy doing to the other. God, what a terrible relationship!
Amber desperately wants to rent Little Orchard to investigate the reasons for Jo’s disappearance all those years earlier but the owner apparently has been warned against accepting to rent to anyone of the family. So of course, Amber tries to bluster her way into the place and has the door shut in her face by the maild.
We learn the bizarre truth that Jo is indeed the owner of Little Orchard and did not tell anyone ‘because she did not want to flaunt her wealth’. Really? Does everyone in the story have a really warped sense of even how to behave? Yes is the answer to that rhetorical question.
Amber finally realizes that the words she saw were on the paper that she herself used to write down a phone number (the back of it). Now it is out who the real murderer is sometime early, first through suspicions and then abruptly confirmed. No misdirection here that you see in mystery novels.
Are there no good points here? If this is what you are thinking, let me tell you that there are. The book is amazing at psychological explanations and the visits to the psychotherapists sounds authentic. There are a lot of bits and pieces that all come together beautifully at the end. The final explanation by Simon as to who the killer is, and most importantly, why the person committed multiple murders, is told fabulously. Nice ending but the story telling and the unduly harsh relationships described and other things I mentioned take a lot out of the enjoyment I could have gotten from the book.
4/10
– – Krishna
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