No Escape

Hilary Norman

Piatkus Books £6.99pbk Rel: Nov 2003

Reviewed by Zoe Sharp

For me, the ultimate test of how much I've enjoyed a book is if I turn the last page and then go looking for other titles by the same author. Having just finished Hilary Norman's No Escape I'll certainly be searching the bookshop shelves for her other works.

This one has an intriguing premise. Wealthy lawyer Robin Allbeury is an expert on marital secrets and runs an unorthodox sideline helping troubled wives escape from their abusive marriages - a sort of Relate Scarlet Pimpernel. He's an interesting character in that you want to trust him, but this is a standalone rather than a series, so is he just too smooth, too plausible?

These doubts surface when several of the women he was apparently trying to help are found murdered. Did he step in too late, or does he have a much more personal connection to the crimes? Running through the book is the story of Lizzie Piper, a successful cookery writer and mother of three, who's married to eminent surgeon, Christopher Wade. Christopher may seem like every woman's idea of heaven, but underneath he has some very unpleasant traits that will ensure Lizzie eventually comes to Robin Allbeury's attention.

Hilary Norman's portrayal of Christopher's strengths and failings, and Lizzie's very human vacillation over whether to stay with or to leave her occasionally abusive husband, is brilliantly done. Indeed, the characterisation is first-rate throughout and I failed to spot whodunit until it was revealed. (And I was looking fairly hard.)

If I have any quibbles it's that one or two loose ends were tied up a little too neatly perhaps at the end, and I struggled with convincing motivation for the crimes, but that's being really picky. It kept me reading into the wee small hours and I've been back and dipped into my favourite bits again since, rather like returning to the part of the buffet you enjoyed most.

THIS REVIEW FIRST APPEARED IN SHERLOCK MAGAZINE