THE CROOKED HOUSE by CHRISTOBEL KENT

THE CROOKED HOUSE

BY CHRISTOBEL KENT

THE BLURB:-

Alison is as close to anonymous as she can get: with no ties and a backroom job, hers is a life lived under the radar. But once Alison was someone else: once she was Esme, a teenager whose bedroom sat at the top of a remote house on a bleak estuary. A girl whose family, if not happy, exactly, was no unhappier than anyone else's- or so she thought.

Then one night violence was unleashed in the crooked house, in a nightmare that only Alison survived and from which she's been running ever since. Only when she falls for charismatic Paul does Alison realise that to have any chance of happiness, she must return to her old life and face a closed community full of dark secrets.

THE REALITY:-

Eh? What was that all about? That was my first opinion once I finished this book. Can a book be 'off its head'? Because this book certainly came across that way; with things thrown into the story from left field, too-convenient memories regained and a seemingly motiveless murderer, if indeed that person was actually the murderer and not (spoiler alert) Lucy, his then-girlfriend's mother. I think he was, but there was a certain sense of unreality about the ending that's a tad confusing. I actually had Roger down as the murderer and kind of worked out his involvement with Alison/ Esme's (I've forgotten her name already) mother (I had to trawl through to re-check, and it's Kate.) Some of the characters did seem superfluous to requirements, such as Rosa, although Kay was essential only for drawing the story to its conclusion.

Is this story even plausible? Esme hears her entire family being shot dead (or almost dead, in the case of her father), essentially disappears with a new identity but is then sought out by people who seem to know who she really is. For Paul to do this kind of searching, then form a relationship with Alison, then take her back to Saltleigh (where he knew her from before, in her incarnation as Esme) then try to kill her shows a truly sick and manipulative mind at work. It's a far-fetched idea but it sort of works.

But... I kind of liked this book! One of the questions brought up in the reading notes was is the location important in the context of a thriller and I think it is. I loved the idea of a remote, enclosed community (they do exist in Britain- I have even witnessed it in larger towns) with a mistrust of outsiders and I liked the fact that the book was set far out on the Essex marshes, almost on a causeway. I've seen such locations used in the much-readable works of author Judith Lennox, and I myself fancy visiting cut-off, causeway reachable Mersea. I loved the dark little illustrations of the crooked house, which pepper this novel and define where the story is slipping back into Esme mode.

Paul's actions seem motiveless, unless of course he was having an affair with Lucy as well as squiring her daughter around town (which is certainly hinted at in the book). A bit of a vague novel, but certainly interesting and readable.