Kairen Cullen is an experienced doctor of Educational Psychology who now writes full-time. She has a blog http//:psychologistthinkingaloud, which is inspired by her work as a professional psychologist, work with the media and her personal experience. She has had many articles and two books published, which are aimed at a general audience on child psychology, children’s development and parenting. She has also started to write fiction, which draws upon psychology and is focused on crime, relationships and contemporary life.
This is a story that brings to life that adage about the very thin line between love and hate. Written in such a way as to explore the female best friend syndrome, with its emotional investment, envy, projection, over-identification and of love and hate it makes for an uncomfortable read. However, it is interesting, might make you consider your own close friendships and is a well-crafted thriller featuring a number of surprising twists and turns.
This is Polly Phillips’ debut novel, and you can’t help wondering if the way in which she so perfectly captures the ambivalence and intensity of the main characters’ relationship is drawn from personal experience. The main characters Izzy and Bec have been friends since childhood and they have been through a lot together as they have grown up into women with careers and partners and in Izzy’s case, a child.
The timeline for this novel is a recursive one with an opening that draws the reader straight in:
“You’re lying, sprawled at the bottom of the stairs, legs bent, arms wide.
And while this could be a tragic accident, if anyone’s got a motive to hurt you, it’s me.”
As the story gathers momentum, flashing back to past events and then building on the drama following the murder, other characters are introduced. There is Izzy’s brother and his celebrity girlfriend who harbour an intense dislike for Bec. Then there is Bec’s husband who also happens to be Izzy’s ex-schoolgirl crush and Bec’s small daughter with whom Izzy is closely involved. Add to this toxic entanglement between the two women the fact that Bec worked closely with Izzy’s fiancée, and you know that the inevitably unhappy ending was always going to happen.
All of the above suggests a thoroughly entertaining and good read and yet I do have some reservations. Does it matter that I couldn’t stand the characters and that I didn’t really believe in them or care what happened to them? Does it make any difference as to whether you care or not about who needs to know and why the murder happened? Is it enough for a crime thriller to simply hang together, i.e., present a crime, offer a selection of possible and plausible perpetrators and cleverly weave a story around whodunnit? I think for many readers what is on offer will be quite enough but for those, like myself, who worry about the existential crisis of contemporary life and the aloneness experienced in modern relationships it will be troubling.
