The Other Half Lives | Crime fiction
Crime fiction This article is more than 15 years oldReviewThe Other Half Lives
This article is more than 15 years oldWhen picture-framer Aidan Seed confesses to his vulnerable girlfriend, Ruth, that he once killed a woman, an artist called Mary Trelease, she is baffled - not least because she knows only too well that Trelease is alive: Trelease recently attacked Ruth when she inquired about buying one of her paintings. Hannah's latest classy potboiler is fascinated by strategies of concealment and revelation - strategies it plays out slightly self-consciously on a narrative level. It's beautifully written and precision-engineered to unsettle. But by the time the initial fog of unknowing has dispersed - and it doesn't even thin until halfway through - readers may feel their efforts to keep track of who is misleading, stalking or framing whom are being insufficiently rewarded.
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