Gwen Moffat lives in Cumbria. Her novels are set in remote communities ranging from the Hebrides to the American West. The crimes fit their environment, swelling that dreadful record of sin in the smiling countryside cited by Sherlock Holmes.
Single mother Patty Watts: frumpish, overweight, inscrutable, is released from prison after serving five years for child neglect and abuse. She’s met at the gate by Rose Gold, that same daughter, now a mother herself with baby Adam: the ultimate hostage to fortune. This girl is a prey to superstition and insecurity, her craving for love demonstrated by her bringing Patty home with her to embark on a programme of mutual forgiveness – mutual because it was Rose Gold’s own testimony that clinched her mother’s conviction.
The past is observed if not explained in chapters meshing so neatly with the present that initially there is no confusion. We know where we are; there is Rose Gold’s appalling childhood and Patty’s eventual exposure; there is the trial, with scant reference to the mother’s time in jail but, in contrast, a fascinating record of the daughter’s recovery once she was free to explore a strange new world.
With no knowledge of social etiquette or technology (but a quick learner) Rose had sought out a former street-wise class mate, tracked down her internet “boyfriend” and, most importantly, discovered her long lost father, complete with his new family. The result being that, by the time she sets up house with her unsuspecting mother, she has a parallel existence, and an already febrile situation is exacerbated by fierce hostility from neighbours. Too many people are closely entwined and most of them unaware of entanglement. Collision is inevitable, with baby Adam at the centre.
We started as a slow burn and two damaged women clamouring for our reluctant attention. At the halfway point the reader is floundering in a fog of lies and deceit, in the manipulation and connivance of medical staff – and then, suddenly, surprisingly, as Rose Gold starts to recover, we take off.
This is more than a crime novel, more than a thriller, and more than ever there has to be resolution. Suspense is swamped by dread. You know how it must end but you too have fallen for the most cunning plotter to turn a slow burn into a conflagration.
An appalling story with a brilliant denouement, this is a fine debut. Wrobel is a woman to watch.
