This psychological thriller starts off in what I’ve come to expect from Minette Walters, a lot of tension and intense situations. Her writing is taut and you know you are in for some shocks. However, with this her latest book she lost me about half way.
Connie Burns is a war correspondent who is investigating the gruesome rapes and murders of five women in Sierra Leone. She is certain that a British mercenary, Keith MacKenzie, is responsible for these acts but can’t pin anything on him. Fast forward a couple of years to the war in Iraq where Connie is reporting from and she is certain she has run into the mercenary again.
There is a real sense of danger that permeates this narrative as Connie tries to find the links that will help get this man arrested but before she can uncover more or get anyone to help her she is kidnapped.
Connie is released after a few days but is too traumatized to reveal what happened to her. All she knows is that she’ll never be safe as long as MacKenzie is out there. She retreats to a ramshackle house in Dorset to heal.
And, there is my problem with the novel. I can understand the need to have the character away from where she had suffered but what I didn’t understand was the subplot of her involvement with the eccentric neighbors. In my mind this novel could have been a good exploration of how victims of abuse will reclaim their control but I didn’t need the family secrets issues deterring from the main story line.
One good point is that even while Connie is in Dorset she never feels safe and neither does the reader for that matter. There is still a sense of sinister things to come. It’s an uneven story which could have been fantastic if not for the secondary story line.
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Added 12/06