A well-written noir about a woman psychiatrist who is convicted of murdering a serial killer, told by the point of view of her husband, who is trying to clear her but gradually unearths her secrets. The most remarkable thing about this novel is that the husband as narrator is completely unlikable and somewhat unreliable, yet Mina still makes him compelling--sort of like that compulsion to look at a car accident. I'm not sure about the "twist" ending; it seemed to come out of the blue. ( )

Written after the Garnethill trilogy, which features a lovable if prickly social worker as the protagonist in some darkly comic stories, SANCTUM (apparently released as DECEPTION in the US) is a standalone novel which sees Mina heading in a completely different direction. In the novel’s prologue she tells us we’re about to read a sensational true crime diary that she owns, having been the successful bidder for the item at auction. What follows is a series of diary extracts written by Lachlan Harriot, the husband of a forensic psychiatrist who has been found guilty of murdering one of her former patients, convicted serial killer Andrew Gow. It starts just after Susie Harriot has been convicted herself when Lachlan thinks she is innocent and will be soon win an appeal. He offers to help by going through the documents and computer files in Susie’s home office. This prompts him to start his computerised diary and what he uncovers makes him question his understanding of what’s been going on with his wife. And his life.

I have to admit I didn’t really buy into the premise that this was a real world case (in fact I found the set up a bit naff) but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the fiction of a diary written from an interesting perspective. It says a lot for Mina’s skill that neither the naff-ness of the novel’s premise nor the unlikeable-ness of its narrator prevented me from getting into the book and staying with it.

It is compelling to feel like we are inside the head of someone who is undergoing some major, life-altering discoveries. His initial belief in Susie and willingness to do all he can to help get her out makes way for confusion and uncertainty as he learns new things. Snippets of information from various sources allow him to piece together an alternative version of his life and there is genuine suspense in the way Mina brings all this together. At the same time we watch Lachlan unravel somewhat in his personal life which is not all that surprising I guess. And its not what makes him unlikeable. He’s kind of a pratt to start with really in terms of his behaviour and life choices. He’s got a medical degree too but has never worked as a doctor, nor really as anything else and his decision to be a stay at home dad to the couple’s toddler daughter is not quite as redemptive as it might seem given the pair also have a full time nanny. Fair enough I suppose that he was fully occupied with his wife’s case when we meet him but I couldn’t help wondering what the heck he did all day before Susie got the sack and then went to prison. But even though he’s hardly endearing there are still some heart-wrenching moments when Lachlan has to visit Susie in prison, cope with the ‘help’ of his and Susie’s visiting family members and re-engage with normal life when he feels like everyone will be talking about him and/or Susie’s conviction.

SANCTUM’s storyline has some predictability to it but I didn’t pick the ultimate resolution and there were plenty of surprises along the way. I don’t know if we were supposed to feel like we got to know Susie – I didn’t but wasn’t that fussed – but the depiction of Lachlan is a treat. Irritating traits and all. The only thing missing for me was the dark comedy that I’ve come to associate with Mina’s work but as this novel was clearly an attempt at something brand new I won’t hold it against her. Perhaps not my favourite of Mina’s novels but still a cut above the average crime read.

Totally freaked me out about marriage. ( )

Mostly this was a creepy and claustrophobic book. (It is not part of any of Mina's series).

Lachlan (known as Lachie) is distraught when his wife, Susie, a psychiatrist in a prison, is convicted of killing a serial killer who has been let out of that prison (the reader doesn't know why for at least half of the book); it is supposed that she had been in love with the serial killer, Gow, and was upset, to say the least, when he married Donna while in prison (Donna is also missing, presumed killed). Lachie, an unemployed doctor who stays home taking care of their less-than-2-year-old daughter Margie (with the Spanish au pair, Yeni), is not an endearing character. He mostly thinks about himself, not the trauma Susie must be experiencing, and indeed the novel takes the form of his diaries. For what he does is invade Susie's private office at the top of the house, breaking the lock on the door, breaking the password on her computer, and explore computer files and her other files to prove her innocence for an appeal. Of course, he ends up finding seriously disturbing material . . .

At certain points, he visits Susie in jail, and those visits are fraught (needless to say, she is enraged when he tells about her invasion of her room and computer), and at a certain point a relative of hers and his parents come to stay. But mostly he explores Susie's secrets and relates his own state of mind. And then, seemingly out of the blue, he figures out what really happened. This was the place where I said, what?! Because the logic and creativity Lachie uses to solve the case were nowhere to be seen previously, and indeed the solution almost defies logic. I felt a little cheated because there was only one clue to the solution that I could spot earlier in the book, and Lachie was definitely too dense and self-obsessed to note it. But I couldn't put the book down up til then.

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did, but there were too many unexplained plot holes to make the titular deception a plausible one.

Favorite lines:
"I've always thought having longer hair made me seem rakish and bohemian. Instead I look as if I'm inexplicably ashamed of the tops of my ears."

"Maybe the change happened after her mother died. It must change you, becoming an orphan with no parent to chastise or please, no one at the back of your mind to keep you in check."

"Still, without knowing what my motive is, the function all of this writing serves is clear: while I'm writing down every small thing, I don't need to participate fully in my life, which, at the moment, is pretty shitty."

"Yeni is fat. She has big tits and love handles you could hang a bike on, but she doesn't care. Her stomach creases above her thighs, and a roll of flesh hangs down over her pubes, but she doesn't look like a second prize. She looks like a fertility goddess because she's so proud of herself. It makes her seem unbelievably dirty and sensual, like you could fuck her all night and then eat pizza off the cheeks of her ass, and she'd still laugh and like you."

And later, in contrast--
"She pulled the duvet around herself, suddenly ashamed of her fantastic tits. As she flattened the bedspread over her chest, the generous fat on her upper arms splayed unattractively. She lost her beauty in the act of hiding, like Eve discovering shame." ( )