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FRANTIC
by Katherine Howell
Pan, July 2008
352 pages
6.99 GBP
ISBN: 033045241X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Katherine Howell's debut novel FRANTIC lives up to its name – it's a mad hurtle round Sydney in Australia, seen through the eyes of paramedic Sophie Phillips.

The job's stressful enough, but then her husband Chris is shot on their doorstep, and their baby son Lachlan abducted from his bed. The cops reckon it's something to do with Chris's involvement in police corruption – he's an officer himself – but Sophie is convinced it's somehow linked to her. So as Chris recovers in hospital, she sets out to find the child herself.

FRANTIC is an odd book to review in that it's tricky to pinpoint why it doesn't quite gel. Technically Howell's doing most things right – there's lots going on, and she keeps the action moving. But the problem is that old one of not making the reader care about the characters. Repeat after me: We don't have to like them. We have to care about them.

Howell, who's a former paramedic herself, possibly over-does the dysfunctional elements of the characters' lives as well (and just wait until you read the ending – I sighed!) Sophie comes across as sulky and unable to communicate with Chris, who clearly has other things on his mind. So aside from the marriage problems, and the sexual tension with Chris's colleague and partner Angus, there's also Chris's bossy mother-in-law.

So yes, of course we want Sophie to get the sprog back, but can't she stop behaving like an angst-ridden teenager who needs a good talking-to? And yes, we know she's frantic with worry, but for someone with the job she has, she does make some decisions that are difficult to accept. And whether you think the ending works will depend on how much Sophie has exhausted your patience.

Howell can't quite decide how much of the stage to give to Detective Ella Marconi, who's leading the hunt for Lachlan. She certainly has possibilities as a character, but also comes with the seemingly requisite lorryload of baggage.

FRANTIC is certainly not a bad book, and Howell's a writer worth watching. But if she cuts back on the ambulance-related drama – which, ironically, slowed up the start of the book and had the feel of her war stories – and instead develops her characters, then she'll be motoring.

Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, August 2008

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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