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.
Turmoil! Fierce riptides and lethal, enticing, inescapable, swirling and sucking eddies of emotional whirlpools. Who Was She is a psychological maelstrom, which grabs the reader and doesn’t let go: it’s as incisive as that sharp, biting hook at the end of a fishing line.
There’s only one outcome, until narrative twist and turns weave confusion and question after question. Author Tony Parsons has been around a while; he’s always going to haul the reader in; he’s never, solicitously, going to throw us back into the sea. We hope.
Lust, love? Passion, fear? Who She Was takes the reader on a hike across the Cornish coast with the constant presence of a troubled, threatening and potentially lethal sea as a backdrop. Tony Parsons knits a blanket of characters and their wildly differeing personalities, and uses them to stir growing tension in his literary cauldron.
The central characters are headed by a mysterious, beautiful, enrapturing, fiery red-headed woman ‘discovered’ on the beach of a just-about-working, traditional fishing village. She captivates the village, both tourists and residents. One falls deeply in what he believes is love, or is it lust, or both?
This is no ordinary woman. Is she some sort of Siren? Who knows? Who was she? What is it about her past that has brought her to a holiday resort just as the summer season is about to start?
Tony Parsons has a vice-like grip on the plot and characters, each of whom is rapidly given a third dimension. He plays with the emotions of his characters, just as he weaves those of the captivated reader. There is an incessant drive towards an eventual answer to all the questions, but each event results in more questions and no solutions.
Apart from the fascinating and intricately absorbing plot as the story progresses, the power of description is captivating. Cornwall is a tourist haven, not least because behind every upturned stone – and pebble – there lies, possibly, a mystery and certainly history. Who She Was recognises this heritage and adds the prospect of unexplained deaths.
Want to know more about Tony Parsons and Who She Was?
Then click here to read an interview with him and Tony R. Cox.
