My Best Friend

Rating:
Summary: A well deservrd hardcover debut for this talented writer
Review: Gerald was one of those people who seem to always have a black cloud following him around. His mother, Marjorie Haldane a famous but high-strung writer of children's books, ignored her son almost from the day he was born because he wasn't the perfect baby she wanted. When he was about twelve he found the dead body of his pregnant sixteen year old sister Vera in the woods near his home. The police questioned Gerald before deciding the perpetrator was her boyfriend. Later on the police questioned Gerald again because he was always showing up to see the schoolgirls play soccer. They never had enough evidence to formally charge him but he was always fearful of law enforcement from that experience.

Now in his middle age Gerald lives a quiet life and the only real social contact he has is with his landlady. His co-worker Jo thinks he's an odd duck. When her boyfriend Ron tells her that twice before the police questioned Gerald in regards to young girls, she becomes concerned because her daughter Melanie tells her that a man answering to Gerald's description has been following her around. When Melanie disappears, Ron, Jo and the police immediately focus their attention on Gerald who's also vanished. This leads to the police alerting an angry public to be on the lookout for him, not realizing that someone working behind the scenes is stirring the angry the crowd into a riotous mob.

This is a superb work of psychological suspense told from the view points of three people, Gerald, Jo and Gerald's Aunt Lillie. British author Laura Wilson imbues her novel with a Gothic feeling of foreboding so that the audience senses that something terrible is going to happen at any moment. MY BEST FRIEND is a book well worth reading.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: great writing talent but limited by genre
Review: I read this book last night in one long sitting, so obviously I thought it was a gripping story. Laura Wilson is far superior to many writers who attempt to tell a story in several different voices--her chapters actually sound like they were written by different people. This book has the added bonus of a wealth of convincing period detail about WWII in England. I thought all the characters were interesting, and I appreciated the way Wilson incorporated their different attitudes towards their jobs and families into the story. However, I think Wilson's interpretation of the mystery genre hampered the success of the book. The ending feels rushed, as the author attempts to tie up a grim crime in a few pages, and the way a few of the characters are left at the end to cope with what's happened to them feels callous. I also had trouble believing that certain characters would really commit the shameful acts they confess to, maybe because Wilson was so successful at making them sympathetic. (Or maybe just because what they do doesn't totally make sense.) I can recommend this book to mystery lovers, but I also think Wilson should try her hand at some non-suspense fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful characters and engrossing plot
Review: It took me a little while to get into this book, but once I did, I was mezmerized. This book is SO much better than other fiction that is more popular--I don't understand why. The writing reminded me very much of Ruth Rendell in terms of the in-depth characterization and "different" people portrayed. I grew to really love some of the characters and was so touched in some places that I cried. Four and a half stars, really, and the final two-thirds is almost five.