Page 26 - Phonebox Magazine October 2015

Book Review
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1980s, she was the mother of a teenage daughter who was found murdered in Wattle Valley Park, and the killer never found. As the characters’ lives become inter-twined with suspicion, blame and accusation, and events from the past recounted, the answer to the mystery may be found – in the dusty letter from the attic.
Cecilia finds herself in the grim position of wanting to do the right thing, but knowing that protecting her family comes first. However, by keeping silent, the secret she has come to learn will eat away at her and her relationships...yet revealing the secret will hurt those she loves the most.
This novel is a thought-provoking and gripping tale, one which is difficult to put down as it constantly demands: ‘What would you do?’ The epilogue of the story tells hidden secrets from the different characters lives and how events could have turned out differently for them if they had made other choices. It also contains a surprise twist – not to be missed!
Heather Carroll
The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
Thelma Shacklady
The Blackhouse by Peter May
This is Liane Moriarty’s fifth novel, and here she introduces us to a Sydney-based family: Cecilia, a mother of three daughters and
wife of John-Paul. While searching in her attic for a specimen of the Berlin Wall to show her History-mad daughter, she unwittingly comes across a dusty envelope. Addressed to her, in her husband’s handwriting, with the instruction ‘To be opened only in the event of my death’, Cecilia is intrigued and tempted to discover its contents. When she asks John-Paul about it, Cecilia is met with an unexpected response.
Meanwhile, in a suburb of Melbourne, Tess uncovers a reason to leave her home and her husband. She takes their son, Liam, to go and stay with his grandmother in Sydney (who has broken her ankle) and here she enrols him at the local school – the school attended by Cecilia’s children. Slowly unfolds a story of loss; a mystery and tragedy from the past that still haunts the school secretary, Rachel. Back in the
Chosen for the Richard and Judy Book Club and the Sunday Times best seller, ‘The Blackhouse’ is a remarkable novel. It is set on the Hebridean island of Lewis and the way of life on that island, together with the harshness of the climate, makes a fitting backdrop to the
stories interwoven by a skilful storyteller.
One story begins when two teenagers, looking for a secluded place to enjoy a passionate embrace, are terrified by the figure of a hanged man, covered in blood – not suicide, but murder. Since there is a strong similarity to a crime committed in Edinburgh, Detective Inspector Fin Macleod is sent to investigate – back to the island where he was born and brought up. He knows the murdered man, just as he knows most of the people on the island. Angel Macritchie had been a school bully, just like his younger brother, Murdo, and the young Fin had learned to walk carefully round them as he began his schooldays.
And so the novel continues on two levels: the present, where Fin meets people he has not seen for years and inevitably finds them changed; and the past, where Fin becomes the narrator, bringing to life his childhood and teenage years and revealing the reason why he left the island, not intending to return. It is in that earlier life that he met Artair and Marsaili, one his best friend, the other a confident little girl who took the Gaelic-speaking Fionnlagh under her wing, translating the unfamiliar English to him and giving him the diminutive Fin, by which he was to be known for the rest of his life.
It is as a teenager that Fin is invited to join the annual pilgrimage to the island of Sula Sgeir, where each year the men of Ness spend two weeks in the harshest of conditions culling the gannet chicks. It is a kind of initiation rite, and what happens on the island stays on the island, but Fin’s accident and concussion means there is a secret he does not know, although it involves him. Meanwhile, the adult Fin is investigating the murder, and discovering that the solution is somewhere in the past among those he grew up with, and that it is only by fully understanding those past events that he will be able to make sense of the present.
This fascinating novel, which it is impossible to put down, is the first of a trilogy. So having read it, look out for ‘The Lewis Man’ and ‘The Chessmen’. You will not be disappointed!
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