This debut novel, which came as a freebie from the nice people at Audible, supplied me with more than ten hours of often quite intense listening. I normally listen to audiobooks in the car and in bed at night (though when I do that I often fall asleep and have to rewind, so it's good that the app comes with a sleep timer), but I found myself snatching more listening time than usual, which in itself must be a recommendation. But I do have some reservations.
This is the story of Jean Taylor, a rather ordinary young woman who was working as a hairdresser when she met and married her charming, loving husband Glen. She adores him, and trusts him implicitly, so when he is suspected of the abduction and presumed murder of two-year-old Bella Elliott, she absolutely refuses to believe he could be guilty. Even when the police investigation reveals that Glen is an addicted online viewer of violent child pornography, Jean stands by him and tries to understand. After all, he seems so ashamed, and is extra kind and loving to his beloved Jeanie. The case comes to court, but the evidence is insufficient (there's no body, for a start), so Glen is freed and life can go back to normal. But of course it doesn't, and can't. The press constantly besiege the couple, vicious letters arrive daily, both Glen and Jean lose their jobs and their friends. And detective Bob Sparks, convinced of Glen's guilt, continues the investigation even when forbidden to do so by his bosses.
The complex structure of the novel enables it to be many things rolled into one. The narrative swings between that of Jean herself, and of various other characters -- Bob the policeman, Kate the journalist, and the child's mother, among others -- so it's partly a police procedural, partly a rather chilling account of the activities of the press (the author is or was an investigative journalist), and partly a psychological thriller. It also swings between time-frames, gradually revealing the true facts of the case but also charting the progress of Jean's thoughts and feelings, over a four-year period. And for almost all that time you don't know whether Glen is actually guilty or not. Other possible suspects emerge, and have to be thoroughly investigated, and it seems impossible to prove that Glen actually had the opportunity of abducting the child. Will there be a tremendous twist at the end? I was waiting for one -- and you'll have to wait till you've read it yourself to find out.
Although Jean is at the centre of the novel, I thought the character of Glen was extremely well-conceived and convincing. I suppose there must be many people like this in the world -- people with what we find to be unbearably shocking secret lives, who manage to show a plausible, trustworthy, likeable face to their friends and families. But the chief interest in the novel is obviously the psychology of Jean herself. She's a surprisingly unsophisticated woman -- she has no idea how the internet works, for example, which does seem a little unusual for a 39-year-old in 2010, when the book is set -- but really that's the point of the story, I suppose. And as time goes on she becomes a less and less reliable narrator -- the police begin to suspect she may have been complicit in whatever Glen is supposed to have done with Bella, and you can begin to see why, as Jean is childless and quite desperately unhappy about it. She even keeps a scrapbook with pictures of attractive babies and small children, and her interest in Bella does seem rather unhealthy. By the end of the narrative's timeframe, we see her having sold her story to a cheap and lurid daily paper, and realise she is skilfully manipulating the journalist who is in charge of the interview. All this is well done, and certainly, as the publishers' blurb and many reviews have noted, everyone must wonder what life is like for the wife of a convicted paedophile and abductor.
I said I had reservations, so what were they? I actually got a bit tired of the constant swings back and forth in time and between different people and scenarios. In fact I found the whole thing a little long, and wished it could have been done rather more concisely. But no doubt most of the novel's admirers will argue that all this was entirely necessary. So cheers to Fiona Barton for an impressive debut, and thanks to Audible for a good chunk of mostly absorbing listening.
