Forget Me Not by
Mandasue Heller
hbk out January 03
Published by Hodder
at £18.99
The blurb is right when it says this is 'a powerful, gritty urban thriller', as
this is a pretty rough book in terms of its content, but written in an excellent
style that makes it a 'page-turner' right to the end to the end of its substantial
wordage.
The story is based in and around Hulme, a sleazy part of Manchester and the
characters are mainly prostitutes and young teen-agers. A serial killer of
whores is on the loose, reminiscent of the Yorkshire Ripper, though this one
mutilates them and leaves a forget-me-not flower amidst the entrails.
Pat Noone is a hard-drinking tart with a twelve-year old daughter Lisa,
precocious but not yet promiscuous. Pat has an Asian 'regular' who becomes
a suspect for the killings, but before this develops, one of the teen-agers
falls victim to the rapist, then Pat herself is attacked, and her daughter
abducted. The story is replete with youthful passions and jealousies, the
atmosphere of a down-at-heel district of a Northern city is captured
perfectly, the author herself having lived for ten years in the area. The text is
full of bad language, but unlike some books where it seems gratuitous, the
context of this story seems to require it. The identity of the paranoid
schizophrenic culprit is known fairly early on, but does not detract from a
nail-biting finale. The subject matter is not pleasant – disemboweling, child
rape and sodomy all set in a down-at-heel part of Britain, but Mandasue
Heller is a very good writer indeed.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
