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Joy Fielding is an author who does a really nice line in menace. She is one of those people who can inspire readers to shout warnings at her protagonist not to venture into a place where we are absolutely sure something nasty is lurking. The author callously continues to march her heroine into the room where we know something is about to jump out and sink its poisoned claws into her soft, yielding, endangered flesh, but we call out warnings all the same. Charley Webb writes a weekly column for The Palm Beach Post, which reminded me of the blog that J A Jance’s protagonist has in WEB OF EVIL, a book that I had only just finished before starting on this. Like Ali Reynolds, Charley receives well-intentioned advice from readers. Mind, some of it is not as good-humoured as it might be and some is downright malicious. Charley and her sisters are named after the Brontë sisters and Bram, their brother, is named for Brontë brother Bramwell. Like his namesake, he is a drug-addicted alcoholic. Their mother deserted their icily cruel academic father when they were very young but she returned two years before the story opens, but family relations are less than cordial. The columnist is approached by notorious child killer Jill Rohmer. Rohmer claims she has a story to tell and wants Charley to write the book. Through Jill, Charley meets lawyer Alex Prescott, a very attractive man and one who soon starts seeing a lot of Charley, despite his obvious disapproval of the project. I have to admit I found myself holding my breath in some of the scenes this talented author created. Her bluffs and double bluffs are things of beauty and her characters are convincingly lifelike. It’s hard to comprehend those who gain pleasure from the suffering of children but the popular press assures us that they exist. It is enough to say that Fielding has created convincing child murderers in Jill and the pseudonymous Jack, the villains of the tale. I couldn’t help but wonder if the research involved in writing such a book necessitated the author meeting and interviewing such malefactors as she portrays so well. If so, I don’t envy her, but really admire the result.
Reviewed by Denise Pickles, February 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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