Mouths of Babes by
Stella Duffy
pbk out July 05
(Serpent's Tail)
at £10
Private-eye Saz Martin is coming to terms with being a stay-at-home mother to her
daughter Matilda while partner Molly returns to work. However, the appearance of a
face from the past (who is now a national celebrity) on Saz's doorstep brings a flood
of sickening memories back to life. Events force Saz to confront the past she has
buried so well and to deal with the repercussions of what happened when she was a
teenage schoolgirl. Duffy is brave to give her protagonist such a murky history and
she explores guilt, secrecy, and the power of the group very well. The horrors of high
school bullying are perfectly captured. Die-hard fans may well be unsettled by these
revelations – how flawed can our heroes be – but the story is a tense and magnetic one
with a shocking climax.
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries and the series creator of TV Blue Murder)
Mouths of Babes by
Stella Duffy
