‘I wanted to go home and
lock the door and not open it again.’
This is the third novel from
crime writer Elizabeth Haynes and for me this is her darkest yet. Annabel works
as an analyst for the police. She is lonely, with just her cat Lucy for company
at home, and a few visits a week to her housebound mum to separate her days.
She works hard, and doesn’t have any other close relationships, seeing the
friendships amongst others at work go on around her without being part of them,
feeling rather disconnected.
Having made a grim discovery
in the house next door to hers one day, she realises on her return to work that
similar deaths are happening in an alarmingly high number in the locality, and
takes this information to her bosses at the police station. Why are so many
people dying alone at home, not being discovered for some time after their
deaths? Though seeming unsuspicious and raising little interest at first– these
are deaths after all, not murders, aren’t they? – not least a local journalist,
Sam Everett.
Through other lonely,
troubled voices that are heard briefly in the story, and primarily through
Annabel, this novel examines loneliness and the vulnerability of it, whether
society should do more for those living alone, making us question our duty to
others, and it makes you wonder about both choosing to be alone and ending up
that way. As the neighbour of someone who has been found dead and alone
comments ‘I think it’s terrible that in this day and age nobody notices
you’re gone…People should take more care of each other.’ This is not to say
that the novel offers no hope in this regard; in fact there are people who
demonstrate the very opposite and offer kindness and friendship just when it is
most needed.
Haynes has created a cold,
chilling character for the criminal in this novel. She takes us into his mind;
we know that from the outside he looks just like anyone else, he goes to work,
goes about his life, no one would know what else he does in private: ‘If you
met me in the street I dare say you would not be unduly worried by my presence…’ But inside that
twisted mind are the thoughts of man playing with the lives of others and
relishing what he does, even believing he is helping them to escape, using his
own particular methods: ‘You want to know how I do it, don’t you? I can
imagine it, your fervent interest, your curiosity that others might describe as
morbid: I can see it in the sparkle in your eyes. Well, ask me, then. Go on. I
know you’re dying to…’ The language here is so apt – ‘morbid, dying to’ – in keeping with
the subject matter of the book.
Elizabeth Haynes established
herself as a must-read author for me with Into the Darkest Corner. This novel
confirms her talent for getting to the heart of the darkest minds and imagining
the awful horrors they might commit. She has crafted another compelling story,
with characters that get under your skin, a mystery and investigation that
keeps you turning the pages, and with a dark, creepy air pervading it all.
Published by Myriad Editions
You can follow the author on twitter @Elizjhaynes and visit her blog here.
My reviews of Into the Darkest Corner and Revenge of the Tide.
Thanks to the publisher for kindly sending a copy of this novel to read and review.
Three super reads! Don't they look good together!
