Minette Walters - The Sculptress
Pan 1993
Recognised as an
accomplished author and with very complimentary reviews by critics from all the quality
English newspapers on the covers, this book does live up to expectations. Her first book The
Ice House, won the Crime Writers Association John Creasey Award for Best
First Novel of the Year. The Sculptress is her second full-length crime
novel. The book is set in various small towns around the south coast of England. The heroine, a journalist and writer, sets out to investigate and produce a book on Olive Martin (seen above played by Pauline Quirke in the new 4 part BBC TV Drama series) who is serving a life sentence for the murder of her mother and sister. Martin has confessed to the crime so everything seems cut and dried.
But what seems straightforward at the beginning of the story turns into a clever and complex plot full of twists and turns and with surprises all the way. The ending is masterly in its ambiguity, leaving the reader with a sense of cold unease.
The protagonist, Rosalind Leigh, is an attractive character with a wonderful propensity for cheerfully and blatantly lying in her pursuit of the truth. She has experienced and come through a tragedy and sometimes has to fight the "Black Dog" of depression. She is strong, with a tenacity to be admired. More than once she is at the receiving end of violence but gives as good as she gets. I can recommend any title by this author as being a thoroughly satisfying read. (P.E.D.)
Minette Walters' The Dark Room was chosen as Best Crime Novel of 1995 by Val McDermid (Manchester Evening News).
