|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
If you like Barbara Vine, you'll want to push to the head of the queue to get a copy of Francesca Weisman's NOWHERE'S CHILD. And even if you think you've OD'd on psychological thrillers set in London, you might want to give this impressive debut novel a go. The book moves seamlessly from 1977, through the 1980s to the present day. In 1980 a beautiful young woman is find dead in a London gutter. Detective Smallbone, the copper assigned to the case, discovers she's a would-be model and pop star. But her past life is a closed book, and the inquiry looks like sliding onto the back burner until the police get a lucky break. Meanwhile, a youngster called Kit is growing up in series of claustrophobic houses with only his mother for company. He has Asperger's Syndrome, which cuts him off from his peers. Twenty years on, though, he travels to London to track down Smallbone who he thinks can help him answer some questions. NOWHERE'S CHILD is a totally absorbing read. Weisman's strength is in building atmosphere and in transporting the reader to the locations -- oppressive and gloomy children's homes, Kit and his mother's seedy houses, small-town England with its prejudices, and baking hot London. I was captivated by the scenes with Kit, but found the early police scenes verging a bit too much on the 'cor blimey, guv.' Fortunately Smallbone and Co redeem themselves later in the book. I did, though, have a slight problem with one of the plot twists which, without giving away too many, revolves on tracking people down. Would a serving policeman with an unusual surname really be in the phonebook? I don't think so . . . These aside, I devoured NOWHERE'S CHILD in an afternoon and am looking forward to seeing more of Francesca Weisman.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, May 2005
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
