Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
EM: What do you think? I mean we've talked quite a bit. What are you thinking? You thinking, where do you think she's … you think she's at a friend's house, think she's okay? Word spread among friends and church members that the Powell family was missing. In the early afternoon Kiirsi sent a text message to JoVonna Owings, who knew Susan from the church choir.
Why have I bothered this time ? Because the verdicts not just given out of sequence, it’s put into the ‘about this book’ blurb ! So I now know what happened before I even read the first sentence ! I mean c’mon ! To those readers who come for a psychological thriller I say stay with this book, and it will repay you in far greater riches. To those who overlook it as not sounding quite serious enough, I urge you just to come. A rare five stars from me. I honestly cannot believe that this is a debut novel. I feel as though Constance is my friend and I wanted to shake her and stop her ridiculous risk taking behaviour. But as I learnt what had happened to her, my arms reached out to hug her. I wanted to hurt the people who hurt her. I wanted to teach her the difference between love and obsession. The powerful writing takes the reader full circle from the first meeting with Constance on a train, bloodied and wearing a wedding dress, to the final heartbreaking diary entry which made my heart bleed, engrossing me in the story and some of the poignant descriptions of grief and despair I have ever read. I am so sorry that I judged Constance before I knew her story. My favourite character would have to be the irascible Edward. And his inscription in the copy of "Wuthering Heights" he gave to Constance for her birthday brought tears to my eyes...Josh finally signed a consent form authorizing a search of his van. In the vehicle they found the electric generator, blankets, a gas can, tarps, and a shovel. They also recovered a circular saw, a humidifier, at least two knives, a tripod, a newly opened box of latex gloves, and a rake, but did not disclose the existence of those items for more than three years.
This isn't about this book per se but I wanted to include a little note mostly for friends who may read this but also for anyone else who cares. Lasseter outlined the Adriana Vasco case from the book Deadly Mistress by Michael Fleeman (very good book by the way.) This was talked about as an example of Conway's skills as a prosecutor. Having been through a recent trauma, Constance is a broken thing. So when Samuel is nice to her, she is drawn right in. Her initial attraction to him then tips into obsession and the tension mounts as her behaviour becomes more and more outlandish. Living in a dank bedsit, her only friend appears to be Dale, but the question is does he have some ulterior motive for looking after Constance so diligently? This is a debut! But you would never know. The writing is flawless - some stunning sentences that showed an intelligent side to Constance that she was not credited for by her peers. When a lonely young woman, Constance Little, develops an infatuation with Samuel, the new doctor at the private medical centre where she works, she is thrilled when he reciprocates. But when he ends their brief and passionate affair, the emotional wounds from her past come fully to the fore, turning her love into a dangerous obsession. The reductiveness of its premise - designed, no doubt, by the publishers to appeal to readers’ tireless appetite for thrills, is both a pity and a mistake. A mistake because this is not in essence a traditional psychological thriller; a pity because there is a danger that it will be overlooked by others. And that would be a shame, because this is a smart, compelling and utterly fascinating novel that lingers.
quote "It's funny, grief, isn't it? How you die with them. Whoever you were before has gone +... "unquote) One thing it does have in common with others of its purported genre is its readability. There is a creepy compulsiveness to the story, a sense from the start that things are going to go tits up. You just don’t know how and when. In this sense it shares something in common with Harriet Lane’s Alys Always which also features a woman insinuating herself into the lives of others. What makes this protagonist’s journey so seductive, however, is both its plausibility and its possibility. We might like to believe that Constance Little is none of us, but in reality she is all of us, for who can tell what lies around the corner of our lives, what particular synergy of experiences, or accidents of birth will presage the perfect storm towards tragedy? I don’t want to give any more of the plot away as the character development is so intriguing and well done that the less you know the better. And there are some great characters in this book; every one of them adds so much to the story. Levin’s prose is fierce and original - not once did my attention stray. It fairly bristles with anger - almost everyone in Constance’s life is subject to her cynical scrutiny, but this brings laughs too, especially when she regales us with details about her fellow receptionists and Linda and Alison.
Great Deal 
New Comment