Half Broken Things by
Morag Joss
hbk out June 03
Published by Hodder
at £18.99
Jean is a professional house sitter facing forced retirement and poverty when her current job, looking after Walden Manor, a secluded and beautiful English country house, ends. Michael, dogged by depression and debt, is a conman with no future. And Steph is pregnant, a fact which only seems to propel her boyfriend to increasing brutality. These three strangers are destined to meet and Michael and Steph move in with Jean. Inventing a shared false history, they each find happiness in their new "family home". When the outside world threatens their idyll, murder is committed and the trio plot to escape detection and to safeguard a future together.
Joss is a stealthy writer who draws you into the characters and the world so effectively that it is an utterly mesmerising read. The writing is thoughtful and lyrical but never overstated. The sense of impending doom and the horror of what unfolds is expertly done, creating an almost sickening compulsion to read on. The violence is shocking but not gratuitous and the story is entirely believable. The author’s interest centres on how morality operates and how the delusions shared by the characters, with their damaged psyches, enable the unspeakable to be if not accepted then at least accommodated. This is the fourth novel from Joss and a top notch example of contemporary, British, psychological thriller writing.
Manchester Evening News 21.6.03
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries set on the mean streets of Manchester)
Half Broken Things by
Morag Joss
