Louise Millar

This was on the new books shelf at the library a couple of weeks ago. The blurb sounded really interesting - a freelance photojournalist returns from honeymoon to find a dead man in her flat. She becomes obsessed with trying to trace who he is. Frustrated by the police's efforts, she takes matters into her own hands. Using her journalism skills, she not only unpicks the mystery, she realises that she isn't happy compromising on her life and emerges as a more confident, assertive woman. I show more really liked Grace as a character. I thought she was believable and my liking of her caused many a gasp and stomach knot as her safety came under threat. I also liked Sula and her no-nonsense approach to journalism - she was forceful without being full on bitch. The story was well plotted and kept me guessing on a couple of points until the end. There were some nice red herrings. I hadn't heard of Louise Millar before, but I will look out for other books by her on the strength of this one. show less

To say that Kate Parker is paranoid and slightly obsessed with accident prevention is a major understatement. She had just recovered emotionally and psychologically from her parents' tragic car accident on her wedding night when she was dealt another blow, the murder of her husband in a home invasion/car theft. She decided to leave London behind and move to Oxford in order to be closer to her in-laws and provide a safer life for her son, Jack. Unfortunately Kate has become her own worst show more enemy in the eyes of her in-laws as a result of her paranoia. Will she be able to overcome her tendencies and continue to protect her family?

In an effort to stem any further accidents or incidents happening in her life, Kate has become obsessed with calculating the odds of an accident before taking any action. She calculates odds before driving in her car, riding her bicycle, or even walking any great distance. Kate feels that her calculations help avoid trouble and keep her safe. After a burglary at the house in Oxford, she opts to install a gate upstairs, effectively locking herself and her son behind bars every night. Her in-laws feel that this is the final straw and give her an ultimatum, take appropriate action to overcome her obsessions or they'll pursue having her declared unfit and take their grandson away from her. As Kate struggles with this ultimatum, she somewhat fortuitously meets Professor Jago Martin, author of the book Beat the Odds and Change Your Life. Kate feels that Jago is a lifesaver and allows him to persuade her into some strange acts in order to overcome her obsessions. Just when Kate starts to feel slightly more in control, she realizes that all is not what it appears with Jago. Is this more of her paranoia at work or is something really wrong?

I found Accidents Happen to be a somewhat difficult read at first. Not because the story wasn't intriguing, but because I initially found Kate's reactions to be somewhat farfetched. However the more I read the more involved I became with Kate, Jack and their problems. I was concerned about Kate's obsessions and the effect they were having on her son, but realized there was no way she could be who she was without it impacting her son. I was a little disappointed that Kate never really received any psychological or psychiatric help for her issues. Once I was pulled into the story and got to the end, I quickly realized that Kate's actions weren't as farfetched as I initially thought. The ending was completely unexpected and strained credulity (in my opinion) more than Kate and her behavior. Having said that, I found Accidents Happen was actually a good psychological thriller read. show less

The Hidden Girl by Louise Millar has been sitting on my bookshelf for quick a while, hidden beneath bigger hardbacks and bigger names. The copy I had gotten was a paperback with a black cover and little graphics, so it was lost there for a while. I found it digging through the pile and decided I needed something different to read from what I had been going through lately and opened it up. It was the next morning when I put it down, finished and enjoyed. A reminder that some of the best show more stories we will read this year come in some of the least imposing packaging. This one is a gem of haunting and tense writing.

Hannah and Will Riley are leaving London for the Suffolk countryside, to a quaint and hidden little village to start a new life. Hannah has quit her career and is devoting herself to fixing the old and austere Tornley Manor that they had just purchased. Will is a musician and has to travel back and forth to London, as his is now the only income supporting the couple. But there are deeper issues with the couple, Hannah is unable to have a baby and blames herself and her career for them not being able to adopt a child. Hannah believes that she needs this home to be approved for a child and she needs the child to keep her marriage. Will is trying to be supportive of Hannah but the stress is straining on him and more and more he is tolerating her obsessive behavior just to avoid a fight. As a brutal snow storm hits the area, Will is stuck in London and Hannah is left alone in the manor. Hannah begins to hear noises and things are moved about in the old manor and Hannah begins to believe she is not alone. Slowly she realizes that there is much more going on in the old village, with the people and the young woman who looks to be a little slow. Is there some terrible secret in this secluded village or is Hannah imagining the whole scenario. So fearful that anything could come between her and the child she wants to adopt. She must find out the truth before she losses the opportunity, but is there more at stake for Hannah than adopting a child?

It is hard to describe the complexity of the tale Louise Millar tells in The Hidden Girl. Hannah is at best a difficult character to like. Her obsessive behavior and drive to adopt a child absolutely gives her a tunnel vision to everything and everyone else around her. Her jealousy and dislike for Will's cousin just because they share a relationship makes her petty and standoffish. She left a promising career and shoulders Will with all the financial responsibility with the purchase of the home and fixing it up but seems unable to notice his reluctance in her press to own the home and adopt a child. Will himself is something of an ass. Selfish and immature, he lashes out in temper tantrums whenever anything doesn't happen fast or easy enough for him. There is also the fact that they won't have sex and haven't for a long time. This is the environment that Hannah believes will be a good home for a child. Then there is Tornley manor. A vacant and broken down old home with way too much to fix with Hannah on her own. Leaving her to rely on the villagers around her. This is where the novel becomes something far more than a drama about a dysfunctional marriage. In her current state of emotional distress, Hannah must come to understand if there is some strange happenings in the village or is this just her imagination and loneliness playing tricks on her.
Millar does an outstanding writing job of building atmosphere and tension, brick by brick, word by word as the solitude and despair that Hannah feels is compounding by this uneasy sense of danger that surrounds the manor.
The Hidden Girl is a terrific Gothic noir thriller that will have you trying to unravel for yourself, what is and isn't real.
A terrific read! show less

Kate Parker is living a stressful life, and most of the stress is generated inside her own head. She's obsessed with statistics--two glasses of wine lower your risk of a heart attack, but three increase you chances of cancer, 85% of bicycle casualties involve riders not wearing helmets, etc. She governs her own life by the pursuit of the greatest possible safety, and does the same with her eleven-year-old son, Jack.

There's a reason for her anxiety, and her desperate attempts to keep her son show more and herself perfectly safe. On her wedding night, her parents died in a bizarre accident, killed when the taxi taking them home, driving on a dark road, hit a dead elk who had been shot by a poacher and then stumbled off to die in the road. Six years later, her beloved husband Hugo is killed by a gang of young toughs out to steal his expensive new sports car. It's all too much, and Kate is fighting fate to keep her son safe. To that end, she moved from London to Oxford, to be near her in-laws, so that they could help with Jack.

But her in-laws are increasingly worried by the effects of her paranoia on Jack. And when she starts finding small things missing, or says she does, and hearing strange noises, everyone knows it's Kate's anxiety kicking into overdrive.

Even Kate knows this.

But even paranoids have real enemies, and something is not right.

The exploration of Kate's anxiety, her struggles to overcome it, and the complex and treacherous emotional relations among Kate and Jack, her parents-in-law Richard and Helen, and sister-in-law Saskia are absorbing and convincing. The riddle of what's really going on, and the roots of the family troubles is also extremely well done, intriguing and not at all obvious. I was mentally on the edge of my seat all the way to the end.

Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley from the publisher via NetGalley. show less