1 September 2022.
ISBN: 978-1-52942-181-1(PB)
When coercive control in marriage was finally declared an indictable crime a few years ago, a flurry of novels with this insidious offence at their heart was sure to follow in short order. This is one, with all the now-familiar markers: charm from the perpetrator at first, then isolation and undermining of the victim, and eventually violence. From the outside, it’s all too obvious what is going on, and it becomes incomprehensible that the victim doesn’t run from the pernicious situation – but on the inside it’s a different story.
Lauren is still in recovery after a vicious mugging of which she retains no memory at all. The considerable physical damage has healed, but her memory is still faulty, and her confidence will take time to rebuild. She has fallen in love with her therapist, Paul, and when he suggests moving to the country where peace and quiet will help her mend, she sees it as the perfect solution.
They rent an ultra-modern house surrounded by wilderness and settle down to life as a family: Lauren, Paul, and Jesse and Margo, his two small children from his first marriage which ended tragically only a few years earlier. And then it begins. Jesse doesn’t settle at nursery; Paul suggests he stays at home; a minor accident makes him also suggest Lauren should give up driving. And there’s a camera in the house, supposedly a security device, which seems to track Lauren’s every move.
And then there are Eliza and
Richard, in much the same situation, except that Richard is volatile and
borderline abusive. The two-story threads have much in common; they are set in
the same house; there are two small children; Eliza is recovering from trauma.
It’s far from clear at first how the two threads are linked, at least until
Lauren learns of a local scandal which took place while another family was
living at the house...
The mystery is finally
resolved, but not without a succession of chilling moments which wind up the
tension level to breaking point. Coercive control is a subtle crime, a
nightmare to live through, but hard to detect because its perpetrators are
invariably clever. These novel paints a vivid picture of it.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick
Emily Freud has worked on Emmy and BAFTA award winning television series including Educating Yorkshire and First Dates. Her debut novel My Best Friend’s Secret was published in 2020. Emily lives in North London, with her husband and two small children.
Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen,
and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but
never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher
for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now
burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half
of them crime fiction.
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