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DARKSIDE
by Belinda Bauer
Bantam, January 2011
368 pages
12.99 GBP
ISBN: 0593062965


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Exmoor in the grip of a snowy winter is grim enough, but when an elderly woman, unable to speak and paralyzed from the neck down in a riding accident, is murdered in her own bed, events take a sinister turn. Village policeman Jonas Holly is criticized by murder squad detectives from Taunton for his handling of the crime scene and abrasive DCI John Marvel appears to be determined to make life difficult for Jonas, and he isn't the only one.

When a second old lady is found dead in an icy stream suspicions mount that someone is systematically ridding the village of anyone seen to be a burden on others, which is hitting too close for comfort so far as Jonas is concerned as his wife, Lucy, is slowly but steadily losing her battle against multiple sclerosis. Then the anonymous notes begin, accusing Jonas of not doing his job properly and the worst thing is that he agrees with them.

This is a bleak but gripping novel. As the story unfolded, I alternated between empathizing with Jonas Holly and wanting to shake him. The same was true of borderline alcoholic, John Marvel, who does a very good job of alienating everyone around him. At times it was difficult to be sure where my sympathies lay as the narrative constantly shifted around me, the characters and the plot realigning itself into increasingly complex patterns. This is very much a story of guilt and its effects on people's lives. It is dark and uncompromising, as the title suggests, but it is also a story of people doing their best in increasingly difficult circumstances.

I was quickly sucked into the story and it continued at a relentless pace. Jonas Holly's frustration with his situation is convincing and the gradual way the past intrudes on the present is skillfully handled. This isn't a book that will leave you with any sort of warm, fuzzy feeling and I certainly wouldn't take it as holiday reading to an isolated cottage in the country, but it is a story well told, with a suitably sinister sting in the tail.

§ Linda Wilson is a writer, and retired solicitor, with an interest in archaeology and cave art, who now divides her time between England and France.

Reviewed by Linda Wilson, March 2011

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