Marion Pauw

Girl in the Dark by Marion Pauw
4★'s

"A single mother and lawyer, Iris has a colorful caseload, a young son with behavior issues, and a judgmental mother. She also has a brother—shocking news she uncovers by accident. Why did her mother lie to her for her entire life? Why did she hide the existence of Ray Boelens from her?
Curious about this sibling she has never known, Iris begins to search for long-buried truths. What she discovers surprises—and horrifies—her. Her older brother is show more autistic—and in prison for brutally murdering his neighbor and her daughter. Visiting Ray, she meets a man who looks heart-breakingly like her own son. A man who is devoted to his tropical fish and who loves baking bread. A man whose naivete unnerves her. There is no question that Ray is odd and obsessive, unable to communicate like the rest of us. But is he really a killer?"

My Thoughts
The reader will in turns feel pity for Ray and at times will feel admiration while alternating between guilty and not guilty every few chapters. Girl in the Darkis a compulsive, page-turning, dark thriller about lies, murder and dogged determination. If you enjoy psychological suspense stories about dysfunctional families, or twisted endings...and I have to say I never expected the ending that I got... then you'll definitely want to read this one. show less

Iris Kaselstein is having trouble coping with all the demands on her. In her work life, she is a lawyer representing a client she despises and whose coworkers think she is not qualified for her position. In her private life, she’s a single mother with a three-year-old son whose aggressive and disruptive behaviour in his day care causes constant interruptions when she is called to pick him up and whose mother seems to vacillate between indifference and cruel criticism. Since her mother show more refuses to tell her anything about her past, Iris decides to do some snooping while the older woman is on holidays. She discovers that not only does she have a half-brother, Ray, her mother never mentioned but that he is in a institution for the criminally insane for a particularly heinous crime. She decides to visit him and discovers that he has autism. She is convinced of his innocence and decides that she will represent him in an appeal. This decision will have dangerous consequences for both herself and Ray.

Girl in the Dark by Dutch author Marion Pauw is told in alternating voices between Ray and Iris and is, for the most part, one hell of a compelling psychological thriller. The characters are well-drawn especially Ray and the pacing keeps the story moving at a good clip. The plot and storyline worked very well and kept my full attention right until the big reveal at the end. Admittedly, I didn’t see it coming but that’s perhaps due to the fact that it felt a bit contrived. Still, the novel kept me engaged and entertained and, if the ending failed to live up to the rest of the book, it was a very enjoyable journey getting to it. This is the first book by this author translated into English but I will definitely be looking for more of her work in the future.

3.5 show less

Girl in the Dark by Marion Pauw is a very highly recommended thriller/mystery told through the distinct voices of two different characters. This is Pauw's American debut novel.

The first character we meet is Ray Boelens. Ray was convicted and imprisoned for killing his neighbor Rosita Angeli and her four-year-old daughter, Anna. He's now being moved to a forensic psychiatric institute. It is clear that Ray is on the Autism spectrum and has a difficult time with emotions and reading the show more motives of others.

Iris Kaselstein struggles with her job as a lawyer and being a single mother to three-year-old Aaron. Aaron has some behavioral issues and Iris is doing the best she can to care for him while still working. Luckily her law firm allows her to work part time. It is challenging when a call from Aaron's daycare necessitates halting an interview with a client. The client's family has long-time ties with the firm, so even though he is a sleaze-bag facing charges for using an underage teenager in a porn film Iris still has to represent him. She tries to call her mother to pick up Aaron, but Iris's mother is a cold and distant self-centered woman who will rarely disrupt her plans for others.

When Iris inadvertently uncovers information that leads to her discovery that Ray is her brother, she sets out to gather information on him and meet with him. Ray is insistent that he is innocent and did not kill anyone. Iris decides to investigate his case, hoping it will lead to an appeal.

In the meantime her mother, who never said a thing to Iris about an older brother, is now trying to discourage Iris's involvement with Ray. She insists that Iris does not know Ray and what he is capable of doing. Unable to handle his outbursts, she put him in a home for troubled boys at age nine. Although she apparently used to sneak off and visit Ray for years, she stopped years previously. She resolutely refuses to discuss anything about Ray with Iris.

None of this deters Iris who doggedly continues her investigation into Ray's crime, as well as why her mother would hide his existence from her and apparently from her deceased father.

Ray is having his own struggles as her tries to cope being in the criminal psychiatric unit. He didn't know he had a sister, but Iris continues to visit him and work on his case.

I really enjoyed the alternating points of view as each character shared their stories and their thoughts. I thought Pauw did an excellent job pulling this off while keeping the voices true to the characters. The characters are well developed and believable.

Girl in the Dark is fast-paced and compulsively readable. It kept my rapt attention from beginning to end. I was a girl in the dark about what had really happened until almost the end. I had an "Ah-ha!" moment very close to the end and raced to finish the novel ASAP to see if I was right. Hopefully we'll be reading more of Pauw's work in the future. Wonderful stuck-over-night-at-the-airport book!

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of HarperCollins for review purposes.

http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/2016/02/girl-in-dark.html show less

I'm having mixed feelings about this book. It was okay and a quick read, let me start from there.
There were also things that disturbed me. For example the graphical description of the attack in the beginning. The autistic boy that is cohersed into changing his routine: it is a. highly unlikely and b. children must not be used for that.
If the book were a true exploration of the different people that were invilved with or witness to the crime, it should have also followed the man first show more arriving on the scene and not stick to witness and victim.

I guess the limited number of pages is the reason for that. show less