A Little Death by
Laura Wilson
pbk out May 99
(Oriel)
at £6.99
Family secrets are the most poisonous kind, for they can never be entirely escaped. So when the bodies of three elderly people -- brother, sister and family retainer -- are found in a house in smart South Kensington in 1955, it soon becomes clear that whatever lay behind their deaths has its tangled roots deep in the past.
But to shed light on the darkness, rather than follow the convention route of a police procedural, Laura Wilson unravels the history of her victims in their own voices. Georgina Gresham, society beauty and prime suspect in the murder of her husband in the twenties, her brother Edmund and their housekeeper Ada each have a narrative that begins with a country idyll in the 1890s that turns sour when a child is found dead. The three stories spiral round the truth, drawing in ever closer until the full extent of the catastrophe is finally laid bare.
In her debut novel, Laura Wilson weaves a spellbinding and atmospheric tale that recreates vivid pictures of period living. And with the ventriloquist skill of the truly imaginative writer, she gets under the skin of her narrators to produce a haunting tragedy of damaged and distorted lives.
(
Val McDermid
- Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill)
A Little Death by
Laura Wilson