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When this book opens, the first-person protagonist, Manda, is on a remote Scottish mountain-side with a dead body. Most of the remainder of the book is an account of how she got there. The reader learns of her childhood in Africa, her unhappy teen years at boarding-school in England and the story of her relationship with Gareth who has just left her as the book proper opens. It is from this latter point that Manda's life really starts to unravel as she attempts to cope not just with the break-up but with an increasingly unpleasant and intrusive stalker. All that seems left to Manda at times is her bird-watching, which has formed the basis for her social and personal life. There probably are not many mysteries with an ornithological background, although Ann Cleeves' interesting first series featured a bird-watching couple. Sadly this is not a distinguished addition to that small field. The book's main stylistic conceit is that each chapter heading is a bird species (eg: Starling, Sturnus vulgaris, family Sturnidae) and there are lengthy descriptions of the behaviour of both various birds and those who watch them. Neither group emerges in a very pleasant light; the bird's behaviour is often cruel and the bird-watcher's more so. In fact this is an almost unremittingly gloomy book filled with unpleasant characters, and one would include the first-person narrator who is not only self-obsessively selfish, but also a classically (and stereotypically) stupid protagonist who insists on behaving in the most idiotic way imaginable, a trait that becomes increasingly irritating. To assess the book as a mystery is almost impossible as there is almost no mystery. There is a small and obvious plot twist and then a highly melodramatic ending. The only person who appears to be in the dark is the incredibly dim Manda. Of course it will be marketed as a psychological thriller and the most charitable interpretation - and one which it must be admitted the ending to some extent justifies - is that it is a study of a deeply damaged person, the first person narrative of a wholly unstable individual. The problem with this - apart from the fact that I am far from convinced this is really the author's intention - is that spending so much time in the company of a person like that is hardly a pleasant experience. In addition the comments on depression and its nature are deeply unsatisfying and tend to the stereotypical as does much else (yet another writer for whom television is some sort of evil, mindless drug - is this some sort of jealousy thing with writers?). This is a first novel and I wish I could be more positive; as it is I can only reiterate my mantra that the first essential for the mystery writer is a decent plot. Sadly OUT OF A CLEAR SKY not only lacks this vital ingredient; it is unrelentingly monotone, psychologically unconvincing and often over-written. The best elements are the descriptions of birds and their behaviour, but it is only for those really fascinated by this subject that the book can be recommended.
Reviewed by Nick Hay, November 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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