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Belinda Bauer
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Genre
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Media
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Book
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Publisher | Corgi | ||
ISBN | 978-055215884 | ||
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Reviewer
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Gareth
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Synopsis
Twelve-year-old Steven Lamb digs holes on Exmoor, hoping to find a body. Every day after school, while his classmates swap football stickers, Steven goes digging to lay to rest the ghost of the uncle he never knew, who disappeared aged eleven and is assumed to have fallen victim to the notorious serial killer Arnold Avery. Only Steven's Nan is not convinced her son is dead. She still waits for him to come home, standing bitter guard at the front window while her family fragments around her. Steven is determined to heal the widening cracks between them before it's too late. And if that means presenting his grandmother with the bones of her murdered son, he'll do it. So the boy takes the next logical step, carefully crafting a letter to Arnold Avery in prison. And there begins a dangerous cat-and-mouse game between a desperate child and a bored serial killer ...
Review
I enjoyed this, it's a compelling read with a taught cat-and-mouse, psychological edge to it. Arnold Avery is menacing, and every bit as calculating as something that might have been dreamt up by Thomas Harris.
The back story to Steven Lamb wanting to write to Avery is just as compelling as Avery's story and poignant too. It's well handled and manages to walk the fine line between being gritty and quite heartbreaking without breaking into cheap sentimentality.
The ending is taught and gripping without verging into the gore that is normally associated with this genre. Instead Bauer has written with a great deal of empathy for Steven, and it's heartbreaking just how cruel hope can be sometimes and what obsession can ultimately do to people.
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