Laura Wilson (1) (1964–)

Another chance selection, which I had to buy because the library copy was 'overdue' by about three years, but a lucky hit this time! The ratings for Laura Wilson's books are all over the place on Amazon, so I'm sort of scared to try any more on the strength of this one story, in case I disappoint my now high expectations of this author. I started reading late in the evening, and was more than half way through before I made myself stop. The plot and the pacing, and the main narrative voice of show more 'bunny Alice', just hooked me right in! I was also totally fascinated by the main character's former career as a 'bunny girl' and had to order the memoirs of a real life bunny, Katherine Leigh Scott, to learn more.

Anyway. Alice, the former bunny girl, moves from London to rural Oxfordshire in the mid 1970s, after the suicide of her fiance followed by a failed marriage. She lives with her devoted dog, Eustace, and various other animals in happy seclusion, but of course the past won't stay dead and buried. After receiving newspaper cuttings from an anonymous source about the death of her fiance, Lenny, and the recent discovery of a woman's body in a lake, Alice's country retreat is thrown into chaos by the appearance on the doorstep of Lenny's former partner, Jack Flowers, now an alcoholic and a seriously disturbed man. But what does he know about the body in the lake, and what does he want from Alice?

The only problem I had with this story is the plot device which kicks the whole tense, psychological drama into action - Alice's bloody stupidity! Seriously, why does she let Jack stay? He's a creep from the get-go. She even says to herself later on, 'This can't be happening, it can't be, I can't bear it. Stupid, so stupid ...', and admits that basically, she just wanted to be close to a charming man who once knew Lenny. The only way I could get past Alice's bad taste in men was to keep reminding myself that the story is set in the 1970s. Not that all women were this colossally dumb or weak in that decade, I just don't think I could bear to read about their modern counterparts.

Some characters are written with faults to excuse how perfect they really are to the reader, making them seem more 'real', and then others, like Alice and the cast of psychiatric patients we meet through her, are so overwhelmingly flawed, so tragically human, that the reader must either pity them or loathe them. Laura Wilson has created a master class of the second type - Alice's first person narration really drew me into her life, mistakes and all, whereas the men were a bunch of spineless liars. My interest never flagged for a second, though. And I would love to have a dog like Eustace - I was so scared that he would get hurt, but luckily, the author obviously loves him too!

A totally gripping, powerful, engrossing psychological drama - definitely recommended! show less

The sudden death of a hospital doctor offers a wonderful opportunity for a man known as Sam Todd to reinvent himself as Dr James Dacre and apply for the dead man’s job. This is London in June 1944, nearly 5 years into World War II, and many of his new colleagues at the short-staffed Middlesex Hospital are very happy to take him at face value, including an attractive nurse called Fay. His new life is far too promising to allow anyone to get in the way.

At first, when DI Ted Stratton comes to show more have a look at a suspicious dead body on a bombsite, the possibility of a murder case looks like it might be a welcome change from following reports of stolen petrol coupons.

This historical crime story starts quite slowly as Dacre builds up his new identity, and Stratton deals with the frustrations and bureaucracy of day to day police work and what does turn out to be a murder investigation. It is the second novel to feature DI Stratton, following on from Stratton’s War, but there is no need to have read the earlier book – Laura Wilson’s six previous crime novels were all standalones and this story works very well on its own terms.

The complex and compelling story is told from three viewpoints – those of Todd/Dacre, DI Stratton and his wife Jenny. Todd/Dacre is a brilliantly drawn antihero. He has done a lot of terrible things in the past and present, and is evidently prepared to kill to prevent someone spoiling things for him now. However, just as there are times when he feels sympathy and warmer human feelings towards people although they may threaten his existence, he is not all evil and I found there were times when I had sympathy with him – I was torn between wanting him to be caught and almost wishing he could succeed (though preferably without too much bloodshed).

Stratton’s home life and his wife Jenny are not just shown to give him background – they turn out to be integral to the plot. Early in the novel Todd follows Stratton all the way home to Tottenham – I really liked the fact that they lived in my own unglamorous neighbourhood as most fictional London detectives live in improbably expensive and central parts of London like Islington and Notting Hill.

Through her voluntary work in a local Rest Centre, Jenny ends up reluctantly taking in a woman who will not go back home, who apparently misses her husband but is terrified when that man turns up to collect her. Stratton understandably resents the intrusion of this woman on his home life.

There is a lot of detail evoking the feel of wartime London, the day to day frustrations and problems, the type of housing, how everything looked at the time. I found the story really compelling and the detail just added to the atmosphere for me. It also gave me a sense of being taken back into another historical era, both in terms of practical issues about how people lived at that time and in the attitudes and thoughts of the 1940s.

At the same time, the strong storyline and characters I really cared about kept me turning the pages (over 400 of them).

Recommended. show less

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 show more 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." show less

This started out well, but quickly got ridiculous. Initially Sophie's entitled cluelessness was entertaining and her efforts to find out if her husband was having an affair were interesting. However, once the big disaster had occurred, the story turned into a sort of farcical adventure. Things were forever being lost and recovered and dropped and Sophie turned into a criminal mastermind. The ending was a little inconclusive, but by then I was just glad it was over and Miles wasn't going to show more be charged with something he hadn't done. show less