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Reader Reviews | |
Review by Ben Macnair (010522) Rating (7/10) Review
by Ben Macnair Newly arriving in London, Beatrice Kizza finds herself in a strange land, having escaped a country that looks down on her for daring to love. Successful Businessman Howard Pink, the original rough diamond, the local boy done good, has a life that many people envy, but if they knew the truth, many wouldn’t want. Esme Reade is a young journalist, aiming to make a name for herself in the media, whilst her mother match makes her with unsuitable men, and then there is Carol Hetherington, recently bereaved, and trying to make peace with her life, her future, and her neighbours. Their lives are soon to become more complicated. The body of Howard’s daughter, missing for years has been found in the garden of Carol’s neighbour, and as Esme also comes into the orbit of Howard Pink, their shared history of loss, means that there is a connection, of sorts. The lives of all four of the characters change throughout the novel, but there are many other elements to the story. Howard misses his troubled daughter and wishes he had been a better father to her in life, but he knows that he can’t change things, and how the world views him in his gilded cage. Esme wishes her life was different, her loss giving her empathy with the people she writes about, but at the cost of seeming to be soft, whilst the life that Beatrice escapes. We also see how the worlds of other characters are changed, with the unfortunate fame that Carol faces, and the interest that her friends, many of whom have not been in touch since she was widowed, ask what her neighbour was like, knowing that he moved the body that was found under her patio to all of the houses that he lived in. The book is a pacey story, with plenty of characters and incidents, people we can root for, and other people we have no sympathy for. Elizabeth Day has enough talent to be able to turn those feelings around, as more and more of the personalities of the characters are revealed, allowing them to become fully formed, and three dimensional as the story ends its winding journey. |
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