Tony R Cox is an ex-provincial UK journalist. The Simon Jardine series is based on his memories of the early 70s - the time of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll - when reporters relied on word of mouth and there was no internet, no mobile phones, not even a fax machine.
The Lowe family is too good to be true.
Perfect in every way and very definitely weird, as we gradually find out. ‘Influencer’ Vanessa Lowe has an absorbing Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that means everything, to the tiniest detail, has to be clean and in its place; and every second of her life is captured on film, or almost.
Alongside the interwoven, exceptionally crafted characters and their lives is the sea. Its majesty, power and omniscience constantly looms large and threatening; stronger than any humans.
Amidst all the family perfection, the Lowe’s youngest son goes missing. Vanessa has already spun Callie Morgan into her web. Callie is a woman with her own past to recover from, and she’s also a guest, renting one of the Lowe family beach houses. Callie is partly our narrator and, it transpires, she follows a mysterious ex-friend of Vanessa into that dangerous web. Family perfection to the outside world comes at a price: some family members are paying the price in differing ways, others are letting slip insights into a relationship that is far from that portrayed to the world away from the Kent beachfront.
Author Annie Taylor is in complete control of the pace of this enthralling book. The crux of the story appears halfway through. The reader is fully aware that it’s going to happen, and knows what it is, but it’s still a shock, a thumping great finality to what transpires to be the first part of the novel. Part One has a smooth cadence, but every chapter contains a veiled, wraithlike unnerving question. Characters are evolved into near three fascinating dimensions. Part Two is faster; a relentless, profound examinations of those questions. The truth, whatever it is, hangs like a lethal blade over psychologically damaged people in a small seaside town.
Mysteries are solved, resolved and remain. As soon as one receives a sigh and breath if relief, it uncovers another intriguing array of possibilities.
This book can be absorbing and disconcerting in equal measure. The quality of the writing, the cadence and structure of the involved plot excite readers and draw them inexorably and quickly page after page.
Dear Author Annie Taylor – I am never going to have an Instagram account!
