Sarah is married and bored. Whilst entertaining her husband’s boring business friends, Gerald Inchion and his trophy wife whose name she cannot ever remember, a house down the road from them blows up. A gas leak, is the story. Wigwam, Sarah’s friend who knows everyone, confides that the two adults in the house were killed outright but Dinah Singleton, the little four-year-old, has survived by being shielded by a wardrobe. Sarah is herself a survivor - why and how is only revealed as the story progresses - but the very fact of the little girl’s survival against the odds stirs Sarah to find out what has happened to the little orphan.
Being no relation, Sarah is unable to elicit any information from the hospital so she visits a private detective agency and hires Jo Silverman to track down the child. I really liked Jo Silverman; whether it was his ineptness as a PI, or Anna Bentinck’s incredible portrayal of him I don’t know, but he is my favourite character in the book.
But Sarah is messing with strong forces and before she can turn round she is faced with a murder. Following close on that discovery she realises that she did not know her husband at all, and that the man she was initially afraid of may be her saviour.
This book is rich in characters., interestingly told from four points of view. I read mysteries for exactly that, the mystery, and as a rule I don’t like to be party to what the killer is thinking, but this book was different - the point of view of the killer or killers, (it’s complicated) was woven so skilfully into the story that it sort of passed me by. I was so interested in the story that it didn’t spoil the mystery in any way.
Starting in North Oxfordshire the story moves about, finally fetching up on
a remote Scottish island. The story is of a young woman caught up in a web of
deception and very powerful people - there is also a lot of black humour which
I enjoyed. There were not exactly loose ends left, but what happens after is
left very much to the imagination. However, when I looked to see if there were
any more books by this author, I saw listed Last Voice You Hear, and noted that
the name of the protagonist is the book is the same as one of the names in this
current book, so maybe…. Anna Bentinck is spectacular - what a range of characters
she had to portray, and how well she did it
------
Lizzie Hayes