Escaping the Past

The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood (Penguin trade paperback, 30 July 2013.).

Reviewed by Marlyn Beebe.


The book opens with a scene set in 1986. A girl describes being in what appears to be a prison cell.  She describes herself as "small and alone and scared and confused", and mentions hearing someone named Bel screaming and crying for her mother.  At the end of this short prologue, we learn that Jade and Bel have killed someone named Chloe, and that there appears to be no doubt in anyone's mind about this.

Fast forward to the present day.

Amber Gordon, who works in the custodial department of  an amusement park called Funnland, stumbles across the dead body of a young woman in the hall of mirrors, not the first that season in the small English seaside town of Whitmouth.  Murmurs about serial killers have already been circulating.

Kirsty Lindsay is a freelance journalist who lives in Farnham, with her unemployed husband Jim and their two children.  She doesn't want to take the story about the Whitmouth murders, but since Jim hasn't been able to find a new job, she feels she has no choice. 

It soon becomes apparent that Amber and Kirsty were once Jade and Bel, though it takes some time before we learn which was which.  The story of how each got to where she is is told with flashbacks to 1986, the events of the present, and their own internal dialogues.

The tale is dark and disturbing, but at the same time compelling.  I had to take a break every few chapters, but there was no question that I would keep reading to the [very unexpected] ending.

Alex Marwood is a pseudonym of a successful British journalist, and The Wicked Girls is her debut thriller, although she has published four other novels under the pseudonym Serena Mackesy.



FTC Full Disclosure:  Many thanks to The Penguin Group for the Advance Reading Copy.

Investigating the Police

Watching the Dark (An Inspector Banks novel) by Peter Robinson (William Morrow hardcover, 8 January 2013).

The first Inspector Banks novel, Gallows View, was originally released in 1987, and the timeline of the books has followed the timeline of reality. 

Alan Banks has gone from a happily married detective living in a small town with his wife and two young children to a divorced Detective Chief Inspector living alone in a cottage on the moors.

Here, Banks is called in to investigate the murder of a fellow policeman, Detective Inspector Bill Quinn.  Quinn was recuperating at St. Peter's Police Treatment Centre, which happens to be located within Banks' jurisdiction. 

Quinn was walking in grounds of the Centre in the late evening, presumably indulging in a cigarette, when he was shot with an arrow from a crossbow. 

Since Quinn was a policeman, an officer from Professional Standards, Joanna Passero, is brought in to work with Banks on the case.  As when Annie Cabbot (now a member of Banks' team) shadowed him representing Professional Standards in Aftermath, Banks is not pleased about his temporary companion.

But they soon become aware of the possibility that Quinn might have been a crooked cop.  Although his superiors seem convinced that this is true, Banks is not, and does his best to prove he's right.

Peter Robinson is a master of Story, and with Watching the Dark he has created another well-constructed, engrossing mystery tale.  Banks has grown not only older, but more introspective over the years, and the reader shares his point of view for much of the novel. 

As one who's been reading the series since the very beginning, I can't say for certain that it's easy to jump in this far into the series.  Starting with this book, however, will take away the pleasure of experiencing Alan Banks' development as a detective and a person during the span of 25 years.




FTC full disclosure:  Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy of the book.