The Grasshopper by
Barbara Vine
hbk out June 00
Published by Viking
at £16.99
After her involvement in a devastating accident on an electricity pylon,
nineteen year old Clodagh is packed off to college and a basement flat in
the house of her relatives, fusty academic Max and sitcom-star wife Selina.
Before long she abandons her course and falls into the company of young
neighbour Michael Silverman (Silver) and the assortment of friends and
drop-outs who share his flat. When Clodagh is thrown out by Max and Selina
she refuses to go home but moves in with Silver.
The friends have a passion for walking the roofs, roaming over the tops of
the tall London houses in the dark, exploring a fascinating world far from
the city streets or the claustophobic Underground. But further disaster
beckons and the tension increases steadily as events climb inexorably
towards tragedy and revelation. Twelve years later Clodagh relates the
fateful story; combining recollections with diary entries and contrasting
them against her present day circumstances.
Grasshopper is Barbara Vine's tenth book (Barbara Vine is Ruth Rendell) and
it is a moving love story as well as a masterly novel of suspense. Vine's
setting among the roof tops creates a fresh perspective of the London
landscape. Grasshopper scales the heights of the psychological thriller and
delves deep into how secrets from the past re-emerge to affect the present.
Shocking, unnerving and powerful.
Manchester Evening News 2/6/00
(
Cath Staincliffe
- Author of the highly acclaimed Sal Kilkenny Mysteries set on the Mean Streets of Manchester)
