Transgressions

This is an average thriller with lots of suspense. The character, Elizabeth, is at work translating an Eastern European crime novel into English. Recently separated from a long term boyfriend she lives alone, but for her cat and her music. Strange events occur, and she hears noises in the night. Someone is getting into her house and rearranging things. The threat however is very real and yet no one will listen. As Elizabeth descends into a fight for survival, her story is told alongside the developing crime novel. This is done quite effectively but the sexual violence in both stories is so strained and pornographic that it interferes with a good story.

weird and wonderful, though, as I find with other Dunant books, the end is a bit of a cop-out.

After a 7 year relationship breaks up, Eliza starts to find things going missing. Gradually she realises she is being stalked and starts on her own personal battle for survival.
Shocking in places, with some very explicit sex scenes, this brilliant psychological thriller had me engrossed.

This was a good story with a nicely paced plot and a character that you could, if not agree with, then at least understand and get to know. The ending was also good, giving the story the closure it desperately needed.

I keep using the word "good" because that's what I thought of it - not fantastic, not poor, not 'the best', yet not 'the worst' either. It was good enough for me to have finished it and liked it, and I will definitely read another of Sarah Dunant's other works. It wasn't, however, good enough to rave about.

Promising start, silly and unbelieveable middle, predictable ending.

Transgressions is such a deeply unsettling novel, it has completely revised my opinion of the author. I discovered her novels with Mapping the Edge,( 1999) when it was first published, and I went on to read her historical novels and reviewed them on this blog: The Birth of Venus, (2003); In the Company of the Courtesan, 2006, and Sacred Hearts, (2009). I enjoyed them as light fiction with a feminist slant on women’s choices during the Renaissance.

But Transgressions (1997) is a most unpleasant book. I can’t discuss it without spoilers.

To read my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/03/30/transgressions-by-sarah-dunant/

So creepy!