Tangled Web UK Review November 2011
Lasting Damage by
Sophie Hannah
hbk out February 11
Published by Hodder
at £14.99
Sophie Hannah first made her name as a poet of high calibre, but in recent years
she has established a distinct and impressive reputation as a purveyor of psychological
suspense. Her books tend to follow a formula, with chapters written in the first
person by a female narrator interspersed with chapters written in the third person
featuring the police officers to investigate the mystery tormenting the female
narrator. There may also be additional documents scattered between the chapters
which increase the complexity of the story, as here. In some ways, Hannah is following
in the footsteps of Minette Walters, but one of the very pleasing features of
her books is that, in some ways, they represent an updating of the "impossible
crime" mysteries which were especially popular between the two world wars.
She presents a baffling puzzle, which causes the narrative to have, or at least
appear to have, twinges of paranoia, before ultimately presenting a rational and
ingenious (if sometimes unlikely) solution. The mixture is extremely appealing,
and here the basic premise is one that I found really fascinating. Connie Bowskill
is exploring a property website one night, and taking a virtual tour of an expensive
house in Cambridge when she sees the body of a woman in huge pool of blood in
the living room. She wakes her husband Kit, but when he takes a look at the website,
the body has vanished and there's no sign of anything untoward having taken place
in the living room. That master of the impossible crime John Dickson Carr would,
I think, be proud to have come up with such a scenario. There is, of course, always
a danger that the explanation of the mystery will disappoint, and certainly this
one had its flaws. I also felt that the book might usefully have been shortened,
as some of the dialogue was a little repetitive. Overall, though, this is a very
enjoyable example of Hannah's work, and I'm sure that it will increase her readership
even further.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
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