Tangled Web UK Review July 2007
The Pool of Unease by
Catherine Sampson
pbk out March 08
(Pan)
at £6.99
Told from two different viewpoints – those of investigative Brit journalist Robin Ballantyne and Chinese private detective Song – the story focuses on the murder in Beijing of a British man who is found floating headless in a icy lake. Rumours abound that this murder is linked to a series of attacks on women, and others that the man was involved in corrupt business dealings. Sampson’s storytelling is fluent and compelling and her characterisation rewarding. Song has to tread a very difficult line between doing the right thing and retaining his liberty and Robin experiences all the confusion of being a stranger in China and also the anxieties involved in leaving her children at home across the other side of the world in order to work. Sampson has lived in China for many years and worked as a journalist. The Pool of Unease is wonderfully atmospheric and evocative without over-egging the author’s knowledge about the location and Chinese culture or the world of journalism. Recommended.
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries and the series creator of TV Blue Murder)
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