Hilary Norman

This is a very good psychological thriller. Four young adults who grew up together at Challow Hall Children's Home have played "games" inspired by "Lord of the Flies"since childhood. Abused and abandoned themselves by uncaring parents they seek to punish sins against children. First there is the teacher with child pornography, then they set their sights on jounalist Kate Turner and a young mother, Laurie Moon. The game becomes very dangerous indeed.

This is a truly scary book and in the best British tradition of mysteries. Matthew Gardner falls in love with a lovely English widow with three daughters and moves his job to London to take up residence with Caroline and her children in their large Hampstead home. But the girls are determined that he must not stay and the troubled older daughters, young socio-paths in the making as one reviewer said, slowly carry out a campaign of hatred with chilling results. A great read.

Hilary Norman is a well established British mystery writer who does not seem to have penetrated the US market as yet. That is a shame because she really is very good. This one takes place in Florida though and is the first part of the Sam Becket series which takes place in the US. The only frustrating part is that they seem to be dummied down from her usual British fare and I doubt I will bother buying another one in this series. If you want to sample one of her hardcore British show more psychological thrillers, try Ralph's Children. show less

OK, first the negatives. This story was a bit too chatty for me, with dialogue and details concerning the story's protagonist, Lizzie Piper and her family that really had nothing to do with the plot. Because of this, It had me yawning in places and I was tempted to skip pages even though I didn't. These unnecessary fillers inclined to detract from the story, instead of adding to it, in my opinion. Additionally, the ending was a bit melodramatic for my taste, even if it was surprising. show more Nevertheless, characterization, plot and the writing style was all well executed. I like mysteries when I can't figure them out on my own without some difficulty, and I never did with this one. Overall it was fairly good, but not great. show less