Carole Tyrrell worked in the theatre for nearly 10 years and was always fascinating by the way death and the supernatural formed many of the greatest and most enduring works. She has read crime fiction for many years and enjoys the broad range of the genre.
This is the tale of a toxic human triangle, which ends in a bloody murder when the relationship between the two Cunningham Twin-Sisters appears fractured by a boyfriend.
Still in shock, one of the sisters is arrested and charged with murder. The question is “what led up to it, and what could make twins turn on each other with such violent and catastrophic results?” In flashback it’s revealed that this horrific turn of events could be the climax of the complicated, entwined relationships between the twins and the manipulative boyfriend Sebastian [aka Seb].
The narrative switches between flashback on the events that led up to the murder, and the present day. The flashbacks are told through the first person narratives of Miranda, Seb and Zara, which are disappointingly more ‘telling’, than the ‘showing’ to the reader; but this is a minor reviewer’s quibble.
The relationship between Zara and Miranda is solidly portrayed especially as the little undercurrents that had always existed between them (although unacknowledged), began to come to the fore as Seb begins to play them off against each other. Miranda feels envy towards Zara and her life, whereas Zara envies Miranda for being a high achiever with a well-paid job as an accountant and her own flat. The twins were fraternal and as different as chalk and cheese in terms of both ambitions, and appearance. There isn’t much of a description of Miranda except for her self-critical, and self-deprecating comment that she is tall, thin and flat-chested. Miranda (the first born) has always been expected to look after Zara who has drifted through life but has now found her calling in life, via a wildlife photography course at university,
As for Sebastian’s motives? He clearly wanted to split the twins up but did he want to go so far as murder? He seemed to be narcissistic, a callous man who was living a male fantasy of having two women vying for his attentions. The relationship between twins can sometimes be fraught as each struggles to achieve their own identity despite always being part of a unit – and the author explores this robustly.
