Before she knew him by Peter Swanson - book review
If at all there are two story tellers who are poles apart in
their trade, Keigo Higashino and Peter Swanson would form the extremities of
storytelling. Of course, some may argue that they fall under different genres.
But both of them deal with murders and police investigations in their own way.
While Higashino’s approach is more methodical and minute to the point of being
real, covering the investigative angle, Swanson delves into the darkest corner
of the suspect and at times the victim’s psyche, touching upon the greyness of
the surrounding characters as well. If at all you can think of a color tone, it
would be all shades of black for his stories. In this book, Swanson, hits the
ground running with the assumption that, even though only 4 books old, his readers
would be accustomed to his way of storytelling.
The story begins with a couple, having moved into a new
locality, gets invited to their neighbor’s house for dinner. The entire story
is setup around the 2 couples with a detective and some small time characters
thrown in. Henrietta, who is introduced as a Bipolar afflicted person,
undergoing medication for the same, during her visit to the neighbor’s house,
chances upon a trophy. She immediately connects it with a murder about which
she was vigorously following up during her manic episodes and decides that the
guy of the house is a murderer. She even discusses about informing the police
of the same, much to the chagrin of her husband and decides against it. In the
very next scene, her suspicions are found to be true, when Michael, the suspect
as of first chapter, is confirmed to be the killer. He notices the look of
astonishment on Hen’s face and decides to hide the trophy. That’s about the
suspense. Revealed right on chapter 2. The rest of the story revolves around
these 4 characters, how each of them are greyer or blacker in persona than the
other. There is a surprise 5th character, who is later revealed to
be an even bigger surprise. Throw in an abusive father and not so virtuous
mother you got your story and how it is going to turn up. For a person with
Bipolar disorder, the lady character is the most sane in the entire setup. Her
adulterous husband, his rave party revelries apart, is projected like a noble
soul only to be tarnished and squashed later. There is a bit of an attempt to
prop up the serial killer as a vigilante. May be the author felt, the storyline
was too dark for his own good!! The final chapter has an even interesting twist
if anyone has any queries on the logical jumps to conclusion on chapter one, as
to how the manic bipolar patient makes such an accurate link.
Gils verdict – considering his previous attempt, this book
was much better. But I am worrying about this omnipresence of darkness in every
subject that I try to pick up – be it the movies or books. Not sure if the
problem is with me or with everything that I used to follow, somehow there is
an overgrowing sense of deifying darkness. Need to switch back to Archies and
Asterix to regain my sense of colour!!! Got couple of more books to go. Hope they turn out to be bit on the brighter side.
Comments
Take a bow for all the reading you are doing. Not easy at the stage of life you are in. But that you do it is a testament to your uniqueness. You are a much "richer" man for it and you can, and should, be proud.