Elizabeth Day (1) (1978–)

Ugh, how do I unread a book? All praise to the author for crafting such a gripping story, but now I would like to pour bleach into my eyes and set fire to my Kindle. What a detestable character - and for once, I don't mean the middle class Rosamunde Pilcher rejects, but the deeply unreliable and itchingly unlikeable narrator. I haven't been so repulsed since catching a stray half hour of American Psycho. Creepy creepy creepy. But the four stars remain, for the author's great observational show more skill and deftly-woven plotting, not to mention creating a character with such a powerful but negative effect. show less

Ben Fitzmaurice is blessed with money, charm, and the confidence that comes of being part of the ruling class. Revolving around his path toward being Prime Minister are his wife Serena, who is discovering that being a wealthy and attractive helpmeet for her husband’s ambitions is not all she hoped for as she enters middle age; Martin, a former schoolmate who did not come from money and never really fit in; and Jarvis who has enough money to buy his way in and a savage appetite, but lacks show more Ben’s polish. Ben and Serena’s eldest child has always rebelled against her class and has become an activist in a radical protest movement (modeled on Extinction Rebellion). Likewise, Ben’s sister Fliss has chosen a different path but has fallen into addiction. It’s her funeral, after drowning in Bali, that brings them all together just as Ben’s ambitions propel him to the top. But there is a family secret that will derail everything, and it all pivots on a horrific crime.

The crime itself is described in gruesome detail about halfway through the novel (consider this a trigger warning), a contrast to the author’s sometimes snarky, sometimes ironic, always insightful commentary on the characters and their motivations. Martin speaks to us through a journal with a sharp, sarcastic style that hides his vulnerability; Serena finds herself groping for an identity beyond that formed in her younger years, one in which women “should make themselves as slender as possible and then, perhaps, one day they could disappear entirely and let the men take over.” We follow the daughter as she embarks on a couple of risky protests that lead to disaster. One of them is at a reception at the British Museum where Ben and Serena make a PR-worthy appearance; Serena smolders as Ben quietly snipes at the absurdity of the exhibition’s “woke” subject: female rage.

There is no real mystery to solve here, though there is a crime and a covered-up police investigation. This is more of an investigation of the role of wealth and privilege in the distribution of power, a crime too vast to be easily resolved. The author combines acute observation of the political moment (one character, a bumbling politician, overcomes a scandal by being a contestant on a grotesque reality TV show that makes him instantly popular) and a surprisingly tender examination of a small group of people with disparate desires, all struggling one way or another with a need to belong.

Brilliantly plotted and acutely observed, One of Us is a smart political thriller wrapped inside a family drama that skewers privilege while treating its characters with insight and compassion.

Reposted from Crime Fiction Review - https://crimefictionreview.com/one-of-us-by-elizabeth-day/ show less

Martin was a scholarship boy who went to public school and came under the aegis of Ben. They went to Cambridge and Martin covered up a scandal for Ben which meant he was paid hush money for years. When that ended Martin tried to get the police interested but they weren't. Now Ben is running for Prime Minister with the backing of another friend, bully Jarvis. When Ben's sister dies, Martin is invited to the funeral and reconnects with the family including activist daughter Cosima and the show more whole house of cards starts to topple.
To say that I couldn't find a single likeable character in the whole book is an understatement but for some reason I kept reading and ended up really enjoying this story. It's super cliched, rich privilege and Tory politicians, wokeness and political correctness, hippy trail and power politics but it's written with a real elan which makes the narrative skip along. show less

A novel of the smarmy lives of British aristocracy and politicians, with one or two appealing characters and the rest, irredeemable. It starts with neglectful wealthy parents, then the miserable boarding school experiences, and then these entitled men stepping into their expected roles as financiers or political figures and their marriages to suitable useless women. The undercurrent of closeted status makes for blackmail and misery. One sober hanger-on even covers up a drunken driving murder show more by his best friend to save him any responsibility, as would be expected by the "LS" (little shadow"). The sole female redeeming character is a daughter who becomes an environmental activist. But a sister drowns herself, and two rapes (one of her, one of her sister-in-law, both done by the same wealthy scumbag) are described in detail. A politician who masturbates on camera (oops) somehow becomes a party leader. Unless this is supposed to be a roman a' clef, I just don't understand what is gained by writing or reading this novel. show less