Harry, a student who's about to graduate, hears that his father Bill has died suddenly - slipped on a steep path? heart attack? His mother had died when he was in his early teens. His father had re-married - Alice, 13 years younger than him.
Bill ran a bookshop. Old John helped him.
We learn about Alice's childhood, - how her single mother found a partner, Jake; how Alice distrusted boys her own age having been tricked into losing her virginity by one; how she fancied Jake; her mother's alcoholism. Alice watched her mother choke to death on her own vomit, then realised that Jake had been watching her. Alice's best friend Gina drowned when the two of them were swimming. Alice might have been able to save her but they'd probably have both gone under.
We learn about Jake's childhood - how a woman of about 50 seduced him in his teens. She died soon after.
A women - Grace - appears in town after the death. Harry is attracted to her, and wonders why she's there. Turns out that she was having an affair with Harry's father. On the night of Bill's funeral, Harry and Alice have sex. Grace is found dead. Her sister Caitlin turns up. Harry and Caitlin want to sleep with each other. But Harry's attacked by someone watching Caitlin. He survives. While in hospital Caitlin's attacked.
We learn that John is Jake. Alice had asked him to check up on Bill, who she's suspected of having an affair. Alice tells Harry about John and says that Bill knew. Harry doesn't believe this and suspects both John and Alice.
Alice visits John, who confesses all. He suggests that Alice kills him, making it look like self-defence. She does. Harry arrives, finds Caitlin knocked out in the boot of John's car.
Gina's mother is soon to die of cancer. She drugs Alice, who she blames for Gina's death, takes her on a boat and sinks the boat.
Other reviews
- crimebythebook (I was shocked and genuinely puzzled by the story’s insistence on coming back, over and over, to the repulsive themes at its core)
- kirkus reviews (he too insistently invokes Lolita, a dangerous point of comparison not only because he can’t match Nabokov’s magisterial prose, but because it’s impossible to take on the notorious psychopathy at that book’s heart without having something of its author’s command of tone and empathy. Swanson’s novel has the twisty plot and page-eating pace one expects from him, but it lacks the finesse and psychological acuity required to make its villains quite believable.)
- fictionophile (Harry’s character which should have been sympathetic – left me feeling quite apathetic. I’m not sure of the reason for this… It seemed that all of the characters in the book were quite narcissistic. The novel contained a few plot twists, but to be brutally honest they were not really unexpected twists. This is a well-paced, though lackluster, psychological thriller )
