The Lover

Reviewed for Reviewing the Evidence. A creepy and excellent psychological sketch of two women and a man who is going to kill one of them. My review concludes "This is not anything like the usual serial killer story in which good and evil are locked in struggle, with women's bodies used to keep score. In Wilson's wartime London, mindless violence is in the air like the dust of bombed houses. We have a tendency to romanticize the Blitz and Battle of Britain as a time when civilization stared barbarity in the eye and barbarity blinked. Yet as Wilson brings that moment back to life, it is nobody's finest hour. She is so good at evoking the everyday experience of the raids and the fear felt by airmen who know the odds against them that we begin to think the violence we do to one another in war is no more honorable or ennobling than what happens when angry, crazed men seek release by killing women."

The Lover takes place in 1940 London during the Blitz. Daily bombings, shelters, destruction, death, waiting, terror, no sleep. Wilson does a great job of describing the environment in this story of three people, and the wonderful capacity of Londoners of those days to keep going, to just survive. The focus is on a young woman, working in an office as a secretary, a prostitute, and a killer. Chapters interweave with the POV of each, often describing the same incident three times, but always from a very different perspective. It's a hypnotic, tense, fascinating story all the way to its brutal climax. I will read more Laura Wilson. 4.5 stars, completed 11/15. ( )

This book is set in the 1940's during the bombings. It is so well written that you really beleive that you are there. It revolves around three main characters, Lucy an office worker, Rene a prostitute and Jim who is in the RAF. Also there are murders but you know all along who is the baddie so there is no guessing who dunnit. There are a few moments that made me smile like when Lucy and sister but saucepans on their heads because they couldn't find the tin hats. First book for me by this author and it won't be my last. Not sure why it is called The Lover. ( )

http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com/review.html?id=4236 ( )

This novel is a thriller but with the additional element of taking place in 1940 London. The story follows the lives of 3 very different people whose lives intersect in the story. It is a terrrifying time and place to live with bombs falling every night but someone is murdering prostitutes and their mutilated bodies add to the terror. Laura Wilson is indeed taking her palce as one of Britain's top mystery writers. ( )