Pages

Tuesday 25 March 2014

Jawbone Lake by Ray Robinson

Review by The Mole

Rabbit (otherwise known as Rebecca) is at Jawbone Lake on New Year's Day when she witnesses a car crash through the bridge and plunge into the icy depths. But she also sees a car stop and the driver get out and look - and all this after what sounded like gunshots. Fleeing the scene she is frightened that the man on the bridge may recognise her so changes her hair and clothes and hides at every opportunity. The driver of the car in the lake, CJ, was a successful business man and his son, Joe, is called home from London to be with his family.

Strange phone calls start to cause the family to question who CJ really was and Bill - CJ's father - knows or suspects more than he's prepared to share. Joe travels to Spain to find out everything he can about CJ and so the truth starts to come out.

I was surprised with this book how little actual violence or pursuit there actually was although the threat was constant and it was tense throughout. But when violence comes it certainly makes an entrance and it's nice to see no super heroes involved making the scenes of violence that much tenser and more shocking. I really enjoyed this story although the very style of it seemed unusual as I kept expecting a 180° shift and everything to come right. I also expected, throughout, that we were about to enter a romantic or a sex scene - something that the author managed to, thankfully, not overdo.

I really enjoyed this book although the style, if not the content, was very different to the usual thrillers I read. It's told with two voices - Rabbit's and Joe's - and there are the odd occasions when I wasn't sure which voice it was although it wasn't important to know which it was for those parts.

A thriller at a different pace - and while still a compelling read - a welcome change of pace as well.

Publisher - William Heinemann
Genre - Adult, crime, thriller

Buy Jawbone Lake from Amazon

No comments:

Post a Comment