Title: THE ACCUSATION
Expected publication: out now
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!
Book Description:
Eighteen-year-old Ellie Canning is found shivering and
barely conscious on a country road, clad only in ill-fitting pyjamas. Her story
of kidnap and escape quickly enthrals the nation: a middle-aged woman with a
crazy old mother has held Ellie in a basement, chained her to a bed and given
her drinks from an old baby's sippy cup. But who was this woman and what did
she want with Ellie? And what other secrets might she hide?
When the accusation is levelled at local teacher Suzannah Wells, no one seems more bewildered than Suzannah herself ... to start with. The preposterous charge becomes manifestly more real as she loses her job and her friends. And the evidence is strong: a dementia-affected mother, a house with a basement, a sippy cup that belonged to her long-dead daughter. And Ellie Canning's DNA everywhere. As stories about Susannah's past emerge, even those closest to her begin to doubt she's innocent.
And Ellie? The media can't get enough of her. She's a girl-power icon, a social-media star. But is she telling the truth?
A powerful exploration of the fragility of trust, and the power of suggestion, from the author of The Golden Child and The Mistake.
When the accusation is levelled at local teacher Suzannah Wells, no one seems more bewildered than Suzannah herself ... to start with. The preposterous charge becomes manifestly more real as she loses her job and her friends. And the evidence is strong: a dementia-affected mother, a house with a basement, a sippy cup that belonged to her long-dead daughter. And Ellie Canning's DNA everywhere. As stories about Susannah's past emerge, even those closest to her begin to doubt she's innocent.
And Ellie? The media can't get enough of her. She's a girl-power icon, a social-media star. But is she telling the truth?
A powerful exploration of the fragility of trust, and the power of suggestion, from the author of The Golden Child and The Mistake.
My musings:
It’s been a while since a book has kept me up late into the
night, but I was so entranced with this one that I read it in one day and
couldn’t tear myself away until all was revealed. Anyone who knows my obsession
with getting enough sleep will know that it takes a special kind of story to
have that sort of power over me!
Darn, this book was good! From the very first page, I was
totally and utterly hooked. I’m not sure if it was the premise of the story, or
the characters, or a combination of both, but I felt that James really touched
the very core of me, like a fisherman
using the perfect bait to catch his dinner. I will be very careful not to give
anything away here, but basically the story revolves around an eighteen year
old girl who claims to have been abducted by a middle-aged woman and her crazy
old mother and held hostage in their basement for weeks before being able to
escape. Being a small town, the pool of suspects is limited, and soon suspicion
fall upon highschool drama teacher Susanna and her mother Mary, who live in an
old farmhouse just out of town. Suzannah denies ever having laid eyes on the
girl, and yet Ellie seems to know a lot of details about the house and the
couple of older women. So who is telling the truth, and who is the liar?
This was a story of a thousand theories – the unreliable
narrator theme as its best. I really liked Suzannah and wanted to believe her,
but Ellie also makes a convincing case against her. My imagination soon started
to run riot. S was guilty, S was innocent, S had multiple personalities, S had
an identical twin, aliens had landed in the yard and taken possession of S’
body to commit the crime. One of those surely had to be right! But no matter
whether either was right or wrong, here we have the media and the public who
have already elevated the young pretty Ellie to celebrity status and condemned
the two reclusive women as being the guilty party.
To say I loved James writing style is an understatement – I
was mesmerised. Both the setting and the characters came to life for me, painting
vivid pictures in my mind and playing out movie like in front of my eyes. I
particularly enjoyed the character of Mary, Suzannah’s mother, who suffers from
a type of dementia and is extremely eccentric. Whilst Mary would undoubtedly be
quite hard work to look after in real life, here she livened up the story and
added not only a bit of humour but an additional thread to sow doubt in the
reader’s mind. Do her crazy ramblings contain some truth?
I can firmly say that THE ACCUSATION is one of the best psychological thrillers I
have read this year, and features amongst other greats of Australian crime
fiction to have hit our shelves recently. There is a special quality to Australian
mysteries that captures the effects of a vast and isolated land on the human
psyche, and ratchets up tension. James has used all of these elements with
perfection to create a tense, claustrophobic atmosphere that kept my heart rate
up and my mind churning in an effort to solve the mystery.
Summary:
If you like a good psychological thriller, then you cannot
go past this one. I was even more intrigued to learn that the story had been
inspired by a true 18th century crime, which gives it additional
depth and meaning. Giving the historical “Canning Affair” a 21st
century setting, with the ensuing media circus and social media storm, was a
clever way to bring this old mystery back to life. THE ACCUSATION
is Australian crime writing at its best, showcasing the great talent of
Australian women writers out there today. It deserves all the hype! A brilliant
book, very highly recommended.
Thank
you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Australia for the free electronic copy of this novel and
for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.
I agree this was a terrific read, great review!
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