Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.

Saturday 3 June 2023

"Sweet little lies" by Caz Frear

An audio book.

Catriona, now a detective, lived in a pub until she was 8 (1998). She has an older, prettier sister Jackie and a good-for-nothing older brother Noel. Her mother's dead. Back in 1998 when Jackie was 14 and they were on holiday in Ireland, Jackie's wild 17 y.o. holiday friend MaryAnn disappeared. Cat knows that her father lied about something then (while questioned by the police) and has always thought he had something to do with MaryAnn's disappearance. He still likes younger women.

Cat's seeing a therapist as a result of her previous case (when she found a toddler waiting by the 2-day dead body of its mother in a bedsit). Now she's on a team investigating the death of Alice, 35, in an area of London where her father runs a pub. Alice was married. She'd been trying IVF. Her husband hadn't seen her for a few weeks, which wasn't so strange. He'd been having an affair. It's discovered that Alice is actually MaryAnn, and the post-mortem shows she'd once given birth. Cat interviews MaryAnn's brother (who's recently moved to London) and fancies him. She re-assesses her father - a womaniser, but not evil.

Alice had befriended Cynthia 4 years before on an IVF Forun. A few weeks before she'd asked Cynthia for help before she was leaving her husband. Cynthia lets her stay in a flat Cynthia and her husband Nate own. Nate is having an affair with a person who lives in the flat - Saskia, a prostitute. Maybe there's a potential blackmail issue.

Cat uses the family Xmas meal to quiz her father - why did they never go back to Ireland for a holiday? When the two of them are alone she asks why he'd lied to the police. Her father says he confronted MaryAnn to tell her not to be a bad influence on Jackie. She asks why he was suddenly out of contact on the night Alice was murdered.

She's sent to Ireland for a day, to investigate. She learns that MaryAnn might have been pregnant when she left Ireland.

She finds out that Saskia knew MaryAnn and her father long ago, and that Gina's father (who now has terminal cancer) used to be a major criminal.

She challenges her father again. He helped MaryAnn go to England to sell her child. Saskia's flat is where others like MaryAnn stay. The baby-selling business is run by Nate. Cat's father protected Saskia the night that Nate killed MaryAnn. Cat realises that she's broken rules and is likely to lose her job. She suggests to Saskia that she tells the police all. She doesn't want to implicate Cat's father because he'd helped her.

There are sections where Saskia confesses and Gina is interogated. There's repetition of earlier material. Saskia was a receptionist at an abortion clinic, so she could identify potential baby-sellers. MaryAnn wanted to find out where her child had gone. She was killed by Gina's father, her body disposed of by Gina's son. We learn that Gina's son was actually MaryAnn's.

The first-person narrative sometimes uses rather literary phrases - e.g. "mute with reverence"; "I'm riled". The Irish characters are colourful.

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