Atmosphere, tight plotting and thoroughly
convincing characters are necessary elements in a successful novel,
and when each of these is exceptionally strong, we're talking about
a winner. Danuta Reah's intimate knowledge of Sheffield, her home
town, combines with her artistic and academic background to create a
powerful and unusual story.
It is the setting which dominates throughout: the old canal, just
beyond the bright lights of the city centre. The towpath is mostly
dark and dilapidated, apart from a small art gallery in a converted
warehouse and, some distance away, a café and entertainment
centre which promises its sparse customers "eating, dancing and
cavorting."
Eliza Eliot is assistant to the director of the art gallery,
Jonathan Massey, and is elated because the gallery has secured an
important exhibition by an up and coming young artist, Daniel Flynn.
Flynn is attempting to put his own, modern slant on a great but
horrific painting by Breughel - The Triumph of Death. And as the
novel progresses, death is never far away. It opens with the funeral
of Eliza's friend from art college days, Maggie, who has died in a
road accident. Eliza knows that Maggie never recovered from the
brutal murder four years ago of her young daughter Ellie, whose body
was found in the canal near the art gallery. Eliza believes Maggie
may have deliberately crashed her car. Maggie's close friend Mark
Fraser was sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime.
The artfully woven plot revolves around three sets of characters,
who gradually get more and more interconnected as the story moves
on. There are the people whose lives revolve around the art gallery
- Eliza, Jonathan, and the spiky young work experience girl, Mel.
Included in this group are two artists, Daniel Flynn, and a friend
of his, Ivan Bakst. Eliza originally met them in Madrid, when she
was working at the Prado. Both men - and to a lesser extent, Eliza
herself, became obsessed with the Breughel painting displayed there.
It emerges that Daniel and Eliza were lovers, but she disliked
Bakst. The second group are all young girls - Kerry, who was
formerly the dead girl Ellie's best friend, and her classmate Stacy.
Kerry is the daughter of Mark Fraser, the convicted murderer of
Ellie, and is convinced of his innocence. She is always making
arrangements to meet her step-sister Lyn, who it appears has
information that may help Fraser. But Kerry is always late for the
appointment at the café on the canal, so we never meet Lyn,
who remains a mysterious figure. Lyn's contemporary Cara is a single
mother who lives in a flat over the art gallery, as does Eliza
herself. The third set of characters are the police, principally Roy
Farnham, the investigating officer, and D.C. Tina Barraclough, a
woman detective with a drugs problem.
It is impossible not to become involved with all these people -
made all the more interesting because they are all flawed in some
way. Death takes centre stage when Cara's body is found in the
canal, strangled and mutilated. After a second horrific murder, it
becomes apparent that the perpetrator has actually been inspired by
The Triumph of Death.
This is a dark, dark book - one is led to wonder whether an
obsession with the macabre inevitably leads to evil. There is a
chilling and terrifying climax. I couldn't put it down.
Maureen Carlyle |
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