One Bad Thing

The core element of this book is something most of us have experienced – a wrongdoing in our youth that haunts us as the years pass. If that One Bad Thing results in someone’s death, no matter how disparate the incidents are, it may lead to confusion, self-doubt, and even deep fear.

Mark Hill’s One Bad Thing is a crime novel that deftly excavates those human feelings through the medium of exceptional characterisation. His writing holds up a personality and strips away the factors that make the individual both good and not so good. It is a deeply effective psychological thriller, but with a pace and plot that drives it forward to a remarkable and shocking finale.

Few of the book’s characters emerge unscathed as the undercurrent of menace and danger gathers pace. Human emotions go under a literary microscope and the reader is captivated.

Hannah Godley, a successful, academically qualified radio show agony aunt is taking calls on her last show before starting on a high profile, daytime TV show. Her life is secure. She is married to a successful businessman and they have an adorable, tiny daughter. And then the call comes through and unearths that One Bad Thing that threatens to turn Hannah’s world upside down.

The twists and turns come thick and fast, but each is believable. Realism makes the book’s plot increasingly unnerving and frightening. The characterisation is powerful, with each figure being a rounded individual, some with the weaknesses that seem to float through the lives of successful, career-building high-flyers – fidelity, alcohol, and looking at their lives through their own prisms without too much regard for those outside their social circle. The reader settles into a character, only for an emotional incendiary device to be dropped. Soul-searching mayhem ensues. These people’s lives are built like a house of cards, but will the reader see clubs then spades, or hearts then diamonds?

When the last page is turned, place the book down gently. It’s been an explosive ride.