This
month’s Caffeine and Chapters Book Club read is an Edgar Award Winning
Novel. Having never read any books from
the list of winners I realised this was a genre I probably hadn’t tapped
into. I liked the sound of this title
over all the others on the list and so I downloaded it as an audio book.
I
didn’t realise that Barbara Vine was the nom de plume of Ruth Rendell’s. I had recently read The Killing Doll by
Rendell and thoroughly enjoyed her characterisations and the dark nature of the
novel, so once I realised who had written this book I was quietly pleased about
my choice.
What
a great story it is. It is the tale of a
family with dark secrets and the secrets are slowly unraveled by Faith, the
niece of the main character Vera, after she is approached by a true crime
writer who wants to write about Vera’s life.
The title of the novel relates to the opening of Faith’s eyes to events
in her family and seeing them with an adult’s new perspective.
The
novel opens with Vera’s execution and Faith mentions just about all the main
characters without us knowing who they are and how they will relate to the
story. As the novel progresses some of
these characters and their relationships are a revelation.
In
short Faith’s father has two sisters – Vera and Eden. He places these two women on a pedestal as
paragon’s of virtue and Faith finds it very hard to live up to their standards
only to find that they were not very virtuous at all as she pieces together
their past. Vera is much older than Eden and pushes her son away in favour of raising Eden when their parents
die. Faith often stays with them on
holidays only to find them whispering and keeping secrets and making her feel
very uncomfortable a lot of the time.
Vera’s son is very scornful and cruel to her but Eden appears to counter his presence with
beauty and a strong love for her sister Vera.
Things
take a turn when Faith’s family are told that Vera is expecting. She is a much older lady and with her husband
away (this is set during the 2nd World War) they can do the math. They don’t receive much communication whilst
she is pregnant but are relieved when they are told eventually by Eden that she has
delivered a healthy baby boy – Jamie.
Vera
is completely devoted to Jamie, but when she falls very ill she is devastated
by the fact that Eden
has taken him to live with her and her new very wealthy husband. Eden
has been trying for a child of her own, but a miscarriage and subsequent
problems mean that she can no longer have a baby. What ensues is a very bitter custody battle
to try and bring Jamie back home to Vera, which culminates in murder and Vera’s
execution.
What
I loved about this novel were the insights by Faith describing the time she
spent with the two women. What seems
innocuous at first becomes darker when viewed in light of the later
events. The characterisations are
absolutely brilliant and their history quite complex. What we have here is a mystery story, but we
are still left with a mystery at the end of it – well two actually. Who was Jamie’s father and who is actually
Jamie’s mother?
This
is a fantastic read and Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell will be on my reading list
for the rest of this year. With
Rendell’s passing a few days ago I can see there are a lot of novels I need to
catch up on.
Maxine
