[BOOK REVIEW]
Victoria Selman (Hachette Australia: Quercus) 2022, 384p, RRP $32.99 (paperback); $45.00 (hardback); $15.99 (e-book); $39.99 (audiobook)
Selman’s tricky psychodramatic thriller has one of those plots that’s so deliberately structured that it almost gasps for air at times, and you just know that you’re being dragged along to some twists that, chances are, you won’t guess.
In the later ‘70s, young Sophie moves with Mom Amelia-Rose from Massachusetts to London, mostly to get away from Amelia-Rose’s endlessly disapproving mother. After the expected challenges (particularly Sophie’s experiences at school, where the kids hate Americans), Amelia-Rose meets the charming Matty Melgren, a handsome type with whom she enters into a committed relationship.
However, everything changes when a serial killer begins murdering London women who, disturbingly, all look rather like Amelia-Rose. Matty seems like the obvious culprit, despite some red herrings, but it isn’t as straightforward as that, of course.
And all of this proves to be part of a tormented Sophie’s flashbacks and, years later, she’s contacted by Matty from prison, and must face him for the first time since she was a child and, disturbingly, almost in love with him as much as her mother.
All pretty grim, Selman’s tale is slightly hurt by its own narrative, and yet there’s still much here to like, with well-drawn, not-exactly-sympathetic characters, and a gag or two to offset some of the darkness.
Note, for example, that a prestigious TV movie was once made about Matty Melgren and his murders, and in it he was supposedly played by Walking Dead ‘Big Bad’ Jeffrey Dean Morgan! And yes, who wouldn’t have watched that?
Dave Bradley
This title is available through the Hachette Australia website. Click HERE to purchase your copy.
