REVIEW
Andrew Taylor
The Four Last Things (Out 23rd Jan 1997 Hdbk £15.99 HarperCollins)
When Lucy Appleyard is snatched from outside her child-minder’s home late one afternoon, no one at first recognises the extreme danger the young girl is facing. Just as the abductor gains Lucy’s trust enough to persuade her to go with him, the reader is lulled into a false sense of security: the man doesn’t seem to be particularly menacing, perhaps it’s just a (relatively) harmless game and Lucy will be released unharmed. But as we’re drawn further into the abductor’s mind we realise that we are deluding ourselves, just as much as he is... his accomplice is deadly serious.
When grisly packages begin to turn up in strategic places around the city, all with a religious motif, the race is on to track down Lucy’s abductor before it’s too late.
Sally, Lucy’s mother, is a newly-ordained curate of St George’s in Kensal Vale, London, a diocese ridden with social problems, violence and poverty, and Michael, her father, is a police officer. The emotional demands of both jobs are already having serious consequences for their marriage. Sally’s sudden descents into dark but transient despair, and Michael’s troubles at work stem from an increasing inability to understand or sympathise with the callous way that people behave toward each other. And for Sally, the abduction of her daughter is the ultimate test of her faith in humanity.
As the story unfolds, we witness the abductor’s relationships with the child, and with his terrifying accomplice, Angel, the initiator of Lucy’s kidnap. Tension mounts as the search for Lucy intensifies. Time is running out. The clue to the murders appears to be related to the four last things: Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell but will this help the police find Lucy before it’s too late?
With admirable skill, we are prepared to face the final shocking dénouement which forces the reader to re-consider the position of even such a horrendous killer in our society and to question the simplistic "them" (the perpetrators or outsiders) against "us" (the law-abiders and insiders) perspective on crime.
At the end of The Four Last Things, we still don’t know "why" the murders happened. In an ingeniously conceived trilogy, the prequel to the novel will be the subject of the second, "The Judgement of Strangers" set in the 1970, and third parts, "The Office of the Dead", set over a decade earlier. As many questions emerge as are answered by this first book and although the novel is definitely self-contained and satisfying in it’s own right, you’ll certainly not want to miss the others!
The Four Last Things is as exciting and tension-charged as it is cleverly constructed. It’s seemingly effortless flow certainly had me up till the small hours unable to put it down! Andrew Taylor has created a memorable, thought-provoking and gratifying novel, which leaves you needing to know the answers. Highly recommended.

The Barred Window (Out 20th Jan 1997 pbk £5.99 HarperCollins)
The Barred Window is a tense psychological thriller which opens with a shocking glimpse into the strange relationship that exists between Thomas Penmarsh and his cousin Esmond.
The story is told through a series of flashbacks, tracing the history of "Finisterre" (or Land’s End) and its inhabitants, particularly Thomas, who, at the age of 48 has lived there all of his life. He still sleeps in the old nursery whose barred window frames the impressive view of the garden, its cats and on down to Blackberry Water. Beyond is Ulvercombe Mouth, a part of the North Cornish coast tainted with the blood of men lured to their deaths by wreckers.
The story is told from Thomas’ point of view and is a tale of emotional dependency, death and tragedy. When Thomas’ mother dies, Esmond, Thomas’ childhood friend and protector comes back to live at Finisterre. Thomas now has everything he wants: security, friendship and contentment. He never wanted Esmond to leave in the first place. But now that Alice has also decided to come back, Thomas’ safe, self-contained world at Finisterre is under threat. The unease is palpable, the legacy of past tragedies seeps from the very walls of the house, and the stage is set for some awful happening or discovery, but you’re never quite sure what this will be.
Andrew Taylor has a true story-tellers art, and an unerring hand in the creation of suspense and quiet terror. Lives are played out away from the eyes of the world, secrets take on sinister significance in the cloying atmosphere and crimes go un-remarked. There’s no high drama, but an unnerving realisation that people and relationships are infrequently what they seem from the outside combined with a sense of destructive patterns repeating themselves. Is this how people literally get away with murder? It’s so unexpected, the individual is so unremarkable that no one notices when odd things happen?
The Barred Window is a haunting, memorable tale, told with an understanding and subtlety characteristic of Andrew Taylor’s writing.(E.A.L.)