A guess I should
preface this with a spoiler alert, but to be honest the plot is so
thin I am not sure that there is a great deal of point.
This is the second
novel to feature the curate Polly Hewitt, and I think I read the
first, but I don't seem to have blogged about it, maybe I felt unable
to bring myself to relive the experience.
One of the things
that puzzles me is that Scott is herself a priest and yet many of the
basic details of Church life are inaccurate – and inaccurate in
ways that seem to serve no narrative purpose. This, as a vicarage
child, becomes very distracting although how much it would worry the
general reader I don't know.
Also Polly Hewitt is
an intensely irritating individual – that she without fail calls
her lawyer Boyfriend “Babes” would for me be sufficient grounds
for divorce. But also the Bishop tells her repeatedly “My door is
always open, come to me at the first sign of trouble” - which she
writes off as empty words – finally she realises they were genuine,
and yet we are still left with the feeling the Bishop is the bad guy,
rather than the conclusion that Polly is a bit of an idiot.
The plot is based
around the juxtaposition of a new Vicar, with undiagnosed Asperger's,
and a charming American who has also just moved to the village –
then a child is abducted and everyone has to try to work out who is
the paedophile. This much you learn from the blurb on the back
cover. So long before the child is abducted, on the first encounter
with the Owen the American you know he is going to be the paedophile.
The only element of tension or suspense is wondering quiet how long
it will take Polly to catch up.
It is one of those
times when what is troubling is that the novel tackles “big”
themes and issues but just can't carry the wait of them. It is all a
bit Midsomer Murders – and I am not sure with this material that is
good enough.
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