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When affluent Natalie Rubin leaves home suddenly, taking five-year-old twins and nine-year-old Isaac with her, her Orthodox Jewish husband, Mark couldn't be more surprised. He thought their marriage was a happy one. Mark hires Tess Monaghan to trace them, and she is happy to take on a wealthy client for a change. Mark is not very forthcoming however, and withholds key information from Tess every step of the way. BY A SPIDER'S THREAD is the eighth Tess Monaghan title and quite different from the first few books in the series. For a start, it isn't really a mystery, as the author happily concurs. The story is told from two viewpoints, that of Tess and Mark pursuing the investigation, and that of Natalie and the children as they travel around. For the first two thirds or so, there isn't even a discernible crime or certainly not one that anyone really cares about. So it's not a whydunit either, more a 'what-the-heck-is-going-on?'. Does that make it a thriller? It doesn't really have the pace or true sense of imminent danger for that until it nears its conclusion. Mark Rubin is not a particularly sympathetic character at the outset of the novel but as it progresses he becomes increasingly charming and less uptight. Whether this is realistic in a situation of increasing stress is debatable, as is Tess's willingness to let him ride shotgun. Natalie is not a likeable character either -- very selfish in choosing her own happiness over that of her children. The twins play a very minor role, but the reader does have real concern for the fate of Isaac who spends long periods travelling in the boot of a car to make the family less easy to recognise as the runaways. BY A SPIDER'S THREAD is a clever piece of writing, gradually eking out information as the story progresses so that we come to learn the story behind the main protagonists and what has led them to this point. Hard to put down when you're reading it, but alas, for this reader at least, the lack of mystery and likeable characters, besides Tess and her friends, also made it hard to pick up again once I had. I just didn't care enough.
Reviewed by Bridget Bolton, September 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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