Book Notices | The Ghost Writer by John Harwood / Half Broken Things by Morag Joss / High Crimes by Joseph Finder

John Harwood, The Ghost Writer

Amazon   John Harwood’s gothic novel The Ghost Writer centers on Gerard, a boy of 13 when the book starts, growing up in Australia, who begins a penpal correspondence with an orphaned English girl named Alice. Gerard’s mother is not keen on their relationship, thinking it somehow dangerous, but that’s just one in a series of strange things about her: She is very private and paranoid. Gerard's relationship with Alice is a little weird, though, and the mysteries it offers keep us reading, but this central story is interrupted repeatedly by stories within the story, gothic tales that Gerard finds here and there. They too are good reading. Still, I disliked the constant interruptions and the jarring refocusing of my attention, and it became very confusing trying to figure out what significance each story had to the central one. The book can be boring in parts—particularly the lengthy discussion of the layout of a house Gerard explores toward the end—and confusing: I’m still not completely sure I understand everything that happened. But the author also succeeds in building our dread—and I say this as someone who read the last bits with increasing discomfort in a dark house at 2:00 a.m. I don't think I'll be reading more of Harwood, because I don't really care for the genre, but that's not to say his story isn't impressive.

Morag Joss, Half Broken Things

Amazon   This beautifully written novel takes its time building to the crime hinted at on its dust jacket. Joss tells a sweet story about three broken people—Jean, Michael, and Steph—who find each other and build a family unit, living as divorced from the rest of society as possible. Their days are filled with homely pursuits—house repairs, fruit picking, childcare, family dinners, wine by the fire. But Joss's description of even the most idyllic of summer afternoons is suffused with tension because we readers know that the trio's happiness has an expiration date. They know it too, but they choose not to think about it. The story is told partly in third person and partly in first, the latter in an account being written by Jean. If I were to complain, I'd say I'm not completely sold on Michael's character development—something toward the end of the book that I'm not convinced he'd agree to. But I wouldn't argue that point too strongly. What a beautiful read.

Joseph Finder, High Crimes

Amazon   High Crimes is an earlyish novel by Joe Finder, published in 1998. I suppose it’s not super early, as Finder already had four books under his belt by then, but it’s the earliest of his that I’ve read. And it’s a bit different from the others I’ve read. High Crimes is a legal thriller: Harvard law professor Claire Heller has to defend her husband at a court martial for an atrocity he’s alleged to have committed 13 years earlier. Legal thrillers really aren’t my cup of tea, but the book held my interest pretty well despite my lack of interest in the genre.