Tangled Web UK Review September 2000
Silent Playgrounds by
Danuta Reah
hbk out July 00
Published by HarperCollins
at £16.99
Suzanne Milner is a woman haunted by her past and struggling to make a go of her present, having her son on appointed weekends and working on a research project at a young offenders’ centre in Sheffield. Then Lucy, the little girl next door, goes missing in a nearby park. Suzanne is a frequent visitor to the park, she was there about the time of Lucy’s disappearance and she saw a strange young man who she thought looked familiar. Later that day she visits again and hears the disused water wheel turning, when she goes to investigate she discovers a body in the water. Despite her worst fears it is not Lucy but the body of a young woman. Lucy is recovered apparently unharmed and tries to warn those she knows about the monsters that lurk in the park who are getting ever closer but she is unable to help the police with any information. Suzanne is drawn into the police enquiry as a potential witness. The investigation headed by DI Steve McCarthy uncovers a maze of lies and evasions and to his dismay he believes Suzanne is one of the people lying to him.
Silent Playgrounds is an effective and complex psychological thriller. Unsettling, contemporary and moody. Reah is skilled at juxtaposing the detail of domestic life with the menace of fears both real and imagined and at creating characters who are vulnerable, intelligent and humane.
First appeared in Manchester Evening News 7/7/00
(
Cath Staincliffe
- Author of the highly acclaimed Sal Kilkenny Mysteries set on the Mean Streets of Manchester)
