2008-01-16 A Quick But Enjoyable Read

This novel isn't as long or as detailed as some of Lesley Pearse's later novels such as 'Faith', but it still has an enjoyable and involving plotline which draws the reader in and makes them care.

This is mainly due to skilful characterisation. The novel concerns a woman named Susan, who has shot dead two adults, and the lawyer who is called to defend her, named Beth. The twist is that the two girls knew each other as children, and now, as both of them get to know each other again, it slowly transpires that they are both deeply troubled and damaged human beings.

Via many twists, Pearse takes the characters from strength to strength, unpeeling layer after layer to their character in a reasonably convincing and authentic way. If I had any criticisms, one would be that a few of the other characters are not quite as convincing, and merely serve to point the reader back to the two central characters.

Such complaints are minor, however, and I would thoroughly recommend this dramatic, often sad novel about the power of humans to repair themselves in the face of adversity.