The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly

Reproduced with kind permission of Hodder
Reproduced with kind permission of Hodder

I loved this story. It’s told by Karen, an unassuming wallflower who is swept up in the unlikely friendship of Biba, a free-spirited aspiring actress, and her buttoned-up brother Rex. Drawn into their hedonistic party lifestyle and their circle of daring bohemian friends, Karen is besotted with both siblings, but it is Rex who wins her love completely. Karen’s initial entrancement with Biba slowly becomes tempered by the realisation that her friend is self-centred and high maintenance, but it takes a horrifying crime and its terrible consequences before Karen can finally stand up for herself and break free. It’s a sad story but one easy to identify with – who hasn’t been starstruck with someone more exciting, confident and outgoing than themselves? It’s easy to identify with Karen as narrator, and as the twists in the plot slowly unfolded to reveal the full picture, the ending felt inevitable and utterly believable. A cast of very intriguing characters and a sympathetic, plausible heroine made this a very enjoyable crime novel, something a little different, and one to curl up with in the evenings, getting lost in the world of these carefree spirits. Rating: ***

Afterword: it’s also about to become an ITV drama….

Hodder, 2011, ISBN 9781444701050

The Guilty One by Lisa Ballantyne

Reproduced with kind permission of Little, Brown Book Group
Reproduced with kind permission of Little, Brown Book Group

Daniel is now a hot-shot lawyer but once he was a lost and damaged boy, who could so easily have found himself on the wrong side of the law, if it hadn’t been for the love of his foster mother Minnie. Now he finds himself taking on the case of another lost boy, Sebastian, who has been accused of murder. Daniel empathises with the troubled Sebastian and the case causes him to re-assess his own past, particularly when he discovers that Minnie has died; he had cast her aside years’ before after discovering a hideous secret, and now that secret is haunting him. As the court case progresses and Daniel delves deeper into Minnie’s past as well as Sebastian’s, the notion of guilt and innocence starts to take on a whole new meaning.

I found this to be an intriguing first novel; the relationship between Daniel and Minnie is centre-stage rather than the murder case, and this makes it far more than a simple crime story. Their relationship is depicted with tenderness, and the complexity of human emotions is deftly captured. There is a real sense of loss here, both of love and innocence, and Ballantyne ably shows how this loss resonates across her character’s lives. The murder case adds an intriguing “what might have been” dimension to Daniel’s tale which I felt added to the poignancy of the central relationship. An excellent read, very involving and thought-provoking, which challenges the concept that guilt and innocence are irreconcilable opposites. Rating:***

Piatkus, 2012, ISBN 9780749957285