The Point of Rescue

Sophie Hannah writes a mystery series featuring two very messed up detectives. Charlie is prone to shooting her mouth off and behaving impulsively while Simon is so repressed and angry he can barely speak. Strangely, these two work well together, although their relationship is a bit volatile. In this third installment, they aren't even working together, Charlie having transferred to another department.

A woman and her child have been found dead by the husband. It appears to be a murder-suicide, but questions remain. Well, while the others are eager to wrap things up, Simon has doubts. Meanwhile, another woman has had an argument with her babysitter, culminating when someone pushes her into the path of an oncoming bus. She manages to get show more away with only a few scrapes, but she's shaken by the encounter. She's further upset when she sees on the news the story of the murder-suicide and recognizes the name of the members of the family, but the grieving father is not the man she knew by that name. Sally Thorning is works full time and has two very small children. She's tired all the time and a bit cranky with it. She's determined to find out what's going on, but she can't tell anyone. The man claiming to be Mark Breckenridge is not the man she knew by that name and with whom she had a brief fling not that long ago.

Hannah doesn't fetishize motherhood. Her young mothers are cranky and impatient and dream of a quiet night alone. She writes somewhat like Ruth Rendell, with that dark edge, although Rendell's cops were never quite as messed up as any of the detectives here. show less

Deft, twisty, well-written thriller whose main fault was it kept ear-worming me with that Mary Black song. Some acute psychological business to do with the pressures of motherhood and the half-arsedness of even the most well-meaning fathers when it comes to the pressures of parenting (many of them self-imposed, the book makes clear, which doesn't help.) The book opens as a puzzle - the supposed suicide and murder of a mother and daughter is all over the news and when Sally takes a pause in her hectic family and professional life to notice, she recognises the name of the husband, but not the man, and knows that something is very, very wrong. Unwilling to expose just why she knows him, she finds herself compelled to get involved while the show more local police investigate the strange and disturbing case. The twists and turns keep coming told in assured and vivid voices with dark humour and sinister secrets. show less

The Point of Rescue is another excellent novel of psychological suspense by author Sophie Hannah and the third entry in her Spilling Detective series. Once again, as in other Hannah books that I have read, I disliked the main character, Sally, but nevertheless, the story had a stranglehold on me and I couldn’t put it down.

A year ago when a business trip was cancelled at the last minute, Sally didn’t tell her family but instead took herself on a spa retreat. She met a man called Mark Bretherick and the two of them spent the week together. Now that same man’s name is being broadcast on the evening news as his wife has murdered their young daughter and killed herself. Only the bereaved husband on television is not the same man that show more Sally spent time with.

This intricately constructed mystery is original, compelling and unpredictable. By trying to cover her own indiscretions, Sally blunders into a dark situation of assumed identities, abductions, betrayals and murder. The Point of Rescue was a gripping read with plenty of twists to keep the reader guessing and the pages turning. show less

Hannah throws the reader directly into the story without the pleased-to-meet-you introductions to so and so. What a confident and risky thing to do...but it works really well. The novel is refreshingly unconventional but comprehensible and sharp with lots of interesting stuff going on between many characters. And I especially like that the police don't all hang about in pubs or bars for half the book.

Very enjoyable; I look forward to reading more of Hannah's novels.

Sally and Nick have two young children and they both work hard. The year before, Sally was feeling the strain of juggling motherhood and her career, all the multi-tasking; she was desperate for a break from it all. When a business trip fell through, she didn’t tell her husband. Instead she went off anyway to a hotel, looking forward to a week of spas and sleep.

In the bar, she met a man - a considerate one, a man who seemed to understand her needs, and they had a week long daytime affair. Revived, she returned to work, but life carries on and she still gets stressed …

"There’s probably nothing important that I’ve forgotten, but it would be nice to be certain, as I always used to be. Now that I have two small children, my work has show more an added resonance: every time I talk or write about Venice’s lagoon losing dangerous amounts of the sediment it needs to keep it healthy, I find myself identifying with the damn thing. Two strong currents called Jake and Zoe, aged four and two, are sluicing important things from my brain that I will never be able to retrieve, and replacing them with thoughts about Barbie and Calpol. Perhaps I should write a paper, complete with scientific diagrams, arguing that my mind has silted up and needs dredging, and send it to Nick, who has a talent for forgetting he has a home life while he is at work. He is always advising me to follow his example."

At home the news is full of a gruesome double death – presumed suicide of a mother and daughter. Their names are familiar – they’re the family of the man she had an affair with – but the man on the TV is not Mark Bretherick!

This is the setup for Sophie Hannah’s third novel, another dark and devilishly ingenious psychological thriller. I’m not going to talk about the main plot any more, it’s complicated and I don’t want to give any spoilers. Suffice to say, it’s complicated and chilling, and mothers and fathers reading it will get little twinges of guilt when they recognise situations within in which they could have been better parents themselves at some time.

Toiling away in the background are the Spilling constabulary – they are the constant in Hannah’s novels. Back again are detectives Charlie and Simon, who have a long-running on-off relationship, which is complicated by her being a sergeant and him just a constable. Although the crime is the star, they provide a satisfying and grounding backdrop to the main event.

I like to read novels with interlinking story arcs in order, and Sophie’s third was the best yet for me, totally unputdownable as usual! I’m looking forward to great anticipation to her next books now.
(8.5/10) I bought this book. show less

I really enjoyed the first Sophie Hannah book I read (Hurting Distance), so I was surprised to see so many of her books on Borders’ shelves during the last days of their closing down sale. Perhaps she isn’t as well known in Australia? (Perhaps that might explain why I bought another of her books for $5 at the $5 bookstall). I think she is really underrated here – she’s a first class thriller writer. Mystery, police, psychological drama and murders – she has it in one. Fans of Minette Walters or The Hand that Rocked the Cradle would enjoy her books.

Don’t be put off that the police characters (namely Charlie and Simon) are recurring. I’m reading the books completely out of order and it doesn’t matter at all. There was show more ‘something’ between them in the past (possibly even before the series started) and now we have missed opportunities and sexual tension. While you may be beginning to think ‘oh no here we go again’, that really isn’t the case. What makes Hannah’s books stand out is that the main characters of the books are victims or near victims. The police are secondary and are there so you know both sides of the story.

The majority of this story is told by Sally Thorning. Sally’s a harried mum with a job, a lovely husband and a messy house. The previous year, she was meant to attend a conference which was cancelled. So, instead of telling her family, she went to a hotel for a week of peace. There, she met Mark Bretherwick and had a dalliance with him. So when Mark’s wife and daughter are murdered, Sally is upset. But the man on the television report isn’t the man Sally knows. The only thing is, she can’t tell anyone what she knows without jeopardising her marriage…

The novel presents a very different view of motherhood from what is commonly portrayed in the media – we have the perfect mother, the busy mother and the uncaring mother all portrayed. It explores as much the psychological aspect of raising a child as it does the murders. Some may be offended at having to confront their own feelings about being a parent. (Perhaps this is why some have ranked this book poorly?) You certainly won’t guess the murderer beforehand! Hannah weaves red herrings, blind alleys and chance clues together skilfully so that you’ll stay up all night reading this. I’m looking forward to reading more of her books!

(Note that this book was also published under the title of The Wrong Mother).

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This dark thriller starts out with a bang, quite literally, and keeps ratcheting up the suspense until the shocking end. Sally Thorning's life takes a turn toward the surreal when she discovers the man with whom she shared a weeklong affair is not in fact the man she thought he was. As she attempts to unravel that mystery, police are investigating the apparent murder-suicide of that man's wife and daughter. As the book alternates between Sally's deteriorating situation and the police investigation, the suspense and questions build toward a stunning crescendo.

This book kept me guessing until the very end, and left me eerily staring over my shoulder on the street. The story is quietly dark and I was impressed by the thrills the author show more achieved in this psychological drama. The writing was tight and the voice never faltered though it was sometimes hard to understand Sally's actions in light of developing events. The Wrong Mother was my first exposure to Sophie Hannah- I'm delighted to discover she has other books I can add to my wishlist. Highly recommended psychological thriller. show less