There are two narrators of this story, Cass and Holly. There’s a big cast of characters, but they are both central. The book takes place in Suffolk, England, in a small town. Cass’s mother is found shot, and the emergency services take her to hospital. The police follow the cue of Cass’s father who said it was a suicide attempt, but it turns out that there are plenty of people with a motive to kill her mother, because she was planning to sell her farm, while others had plans to make other uses of the property. It turns out Cass is emotionally troubled and has been hospitalized for possibly self-destructive behavior in the past. She is married to a healer who eschews traditional medicine and promotes alternative cures for even the most serious illnesses. Holly is a trainee medical emergency paramedic, and she is on the scene at the start. It turns out that she has a very peculiar kind of ability: a form of synesthesia that allows her to feel people’s emotions when she touches them. Holly uses her ability to work out some hidden details.

Of course, there is no such mind-reading superpower in real life, so this makes the novel more a matter of fantasy than most mysteries. Author Ruth Dugdall also introduces antidepressant drugs that work like aspirins, lifting mood soon after being taken, which is completely like any actual antidepressants, even according to their manufacturers, who say the drugs take several weeks to have their intended effects. So the novel plays with some interesting themes but isn’t researched very carefully. It is well written and the unabridged audiobook is performed well by Elizabeth Knowelden, but still it is essentially a lightweight story that addresses some more serious questions about mental health and murderous intent. Cass turns out to be a deeply flawed narrator for various reasons, but especially because of her love of her husband, which seems to derive from her own insecurity rather than any of his positive qualities. She tests the reader’s patience with her lack of insight and self-control.

But the plot has many twists and turns, and it keeps a swift pace. The performance of the unabridged audiobook by Elizabeth Knowelden has plenty of energy with good differentiation of the different characters. So long as your keep your expectations low, there’s enough in this novel to enjoy as a contemporary British family mystery with a psychological emphasis.

© 2018 Christian Perring

Christian Perring teaches in NYC.