Krishna
You end it with the full satisfaction of having read a book that is made gripping by the story and also the power of the author’s narration of it. Quite impressive.
A girl tries to run away from home and is stranded in the middle of nowhere when her van breaks down. The preface stops here until two thirds of the way into the story, where it links up with the main thread.
A girl is fished out of a river and they fear it is Hattie. The inspector is a friend of Hattie’s father.
Meanwhile, Peter resents that his wife has to go to a village to look after her invalid mother, Esther, who refuses to go to an old age home like normal people. What is more, he had to give up his job to move with her. He starts to resent his wife and his mother in law, who seems to be everywhere, tying them down and also does not appear to like him to boot.
Hattie does not seem to like her boyfriend but is kind of taken with the new teacher in school.
The story flits between the past and present – in the present, the detective realizes that she had had consensual sex just before her death.
Peter is the teacher in Hattie’s school but he feels more and more repulsed by the village ways of Mary – how she kills chicken with no thought at all – and they are growing apart – fast.
The online relationships between Peter Lund and Hattie, without each knowing about the other which goes from shared interests to cyber sex and how Hattie suddenly realizes that the LitGeek she was talking to (as HollyG) was none other than Peter and how she reveals herself to him through a prearranged dress in a drama rehearsal are beautifully told and you see the escalating confusion that Peter is under – and how seriously Hattie pursues him, with growing tension in us, the reader. Very well developed. He tries to shun her doing the right thing, but she seems determined.
All the while you go back to post death of Hattie and you realize she has been murdered and thrown in the river and the detective looking into it is a personal friend of the father is another nice touch. The storytelling sparkles.
Even the intro where Hattie tries to run away and is rescued by a friend is told very well.
My god, the story develops beautifully and the two worlds of Peter and Hattie are narrated with a skill reminiscent of the Gone Girl. Devastatingly beautiful is the juxtaposition of Del the principal investigator (after Hattie's body was found) who is also a personal friend of Hattie’s parents – a long time friend. The background of Del also comes slowly into focus – his Vietnam war days and then right upon his return, his wife walking out on him, getting a divorce and later dying of cancer after remarrying, living with a new husband for several years and begetting children.
Nice narration and great development of the story. From Peter completely struggling to do the right thing, from Peter being astounded to see that the person who he was chatting and getting close to on the net is really Hattie, to how he pushes her away because she is underage, to how she relentlessly pursues him to how he is tempted due to his rapidly deteriorating family situation to how he even then has sense enough to wait until she becomes an adult…. It is just brilliant.
We watch Peter slowly descending into giving in to the attraction even if every bone in his body warns that it is wrong and to how he finally even goes as far to arrange the secret trysts for them to meet.
When he finally threatens to push Hattie away to stop the madness, she threatening to expose him to everyone. You start to wonder if he has a motive. Then his wife drops a bombshell – she would rather not go back to a big city and then another – she is pregnant. Peter now tries to cut Hattie off.
The story brilliantly escalates to a climax after the final performance of Macbeth where Hattie is found dead, and weaves between plausible scenarios. It even goes to a place where Peter meekly accepts the guilty plea even though, through his reminiscences, he remembers that he did not kill Hattie. Amazing story, beautifully written, the real killer (though a bit contrived?) revealed a bit dramatically.
Suspicion keeps falling between several people, with the grief and shock of Hattie’s parents showing, the final scene where Peter realizes his final fate, everything is done so well.
Yes, this is not an intellectual tale but a mystery book that reads well and captures the emotions of all the three narrators who tell the story in an alternating fashion, even with different time spans – Hattie herself, the teacher, and Del, the sheriff who is also a close friend of Bud, Hattie’s father. Lovely to read.
9/10
– – Krishna