“Standing at the edge of the mountain, I
imagined what it would feel like to let go.”
I’ve
always been a sucker for good first sentences, and that one sucked me right in.
It felt as if I was standing nearby, sensing the fragility of that woman’s mind, realising that she could be contemplating suicide and that the
invisible thread keeping her from jumping was very thin. Lily Moore’s emotional
baggage would definitely influence how she would act and react all through the following story.
So when moments later another woman is found dying of an apparent
fall, I wanted to know how Lily would get mixed into it all. Because after all,
a mentally unstable character that is pulled into a murder mystery doesn’t have
time to see a shrink, nor to even take care of herself, and the events would
probably cloud the thoughts a bit more in her already foggy mind. If that's not an interesting character to read about, I don't know what is.
Three
months after the death of her sister (in The
Damage Done) travel journalist Lily Moore (she works for Frakker’s!) needs a
change of scenery. She gets an assignment to Peru, specifically to Macchu Piccu. Her best friend, Jesse, a photographer, comes along. Still very much into her grieving process, Lily gets involved in
the mystery surrounding the woman’s death, and instead of getting as far away
as possible from the whole case, she lets herself fall into it, bringing Jesse
along with her. It is a metaphorical fall that Lily allows herself to do,
unconsciously trying to rid herself of her guilt regarding the death of her
sister, while at the same time trying to push it to the back of her
mind.
From
then on, every time Lily has an opportunity to get away from the case,
something happens that keeps her involved even more. Of course, if she didn’t
there wouldn’t be a book to write about, but Lily and Jesse fell on my nerves a
few times in the beginning and I wanted to tell them “you’re saying you shouldn’t get involved
and then you start nosing around to learn more, well live with the consequences!” The good thing about it is that they're far from being boring while they go through dangerous events, more than once risking their lives. The
whole mystery seems simple enough at first, but as you get to know the secrets
of the dead woman’s former husband –and of everyone linked to his bizarre family-- you become entangled in a web of incidents where no one can really be trusted: whenever you think you’ve found a pattern to it
that will uncover the truth, it tightens a bit more and you realise you're not even closer to the solution. Davidson impresses in the way she juggles with many subplots.
After
a very successful first book that received awards and great reviews all around, no one will say that Hilary Davidson took it easy for her second novel. With her
knowledge of Peru, her descriptions of the places and of the Peruvians, she
makes us wish we were there (even in the middle of a murder mystery). Davidson also creates interesting, complex
characters (Vargas and his wife; Charlie Cutler, Lily Moore, and a few others)
and only a few less believable ones (Len Wolven Sr and Marianne Wagerman) who are
less developed and feel like caricatures. Fortunately, the many good
characters are the ones who carry the story. Detective Bruxton, my favourite
character from The Damage Done, is only involved
by phone this time (he’s in the U.S.) but like a good supporting actor, he
steals the spotlight whenever he’s on; he’s a hardboiled character who almost
seems out of place in Lily Moore’s world but instead brings an edge that is
usually missing in most lighter mysteries. He also gets the best lines. Here he
talks with Lily:
“-Let me get this straight. You and your Okie
pal think you’ve stumbled onto a serial killer doing business in Peru.
-We think he’s killed three
women, but there could be more. One was in the U.S.
-So he’s an underachieving
serial killer.”
And
a few moments later in the same conversation:
“-By the way, you know what pisses me off about amateur sleuths? You think everything
is like a movie.” That one I liked a lot because Lily and Jesse are often
referring to movies and quoting actors, something that bothered me in The Damage Done (but less so here).
After Lily
tells Bruxton that “Running away isn’t an
option.(…) Besides, I don’t run away.” He replies right away:
“Is that your John Wayne impersonation? It
sucks.”
A
few coincidences in the story were somewhat implausible, like a couple of
chance encounters with the same group of young tourists, but they are minor enough that they don't compromise the whole storyline. Davidson moves the plot along at a great pace but when
she writes a few sightseeing scenes, where the reader learns about the local history, it slows down the story (even though the info is very interesting). Fortunately, Davidson never loses
control and she picks up the pace nicely by connecting these scenes to stronger
ones that get right back into the middle of things, usually even upping the
tempo.
The Next One
to Fall
is overall a very good read, especially if you enjoy a mystery that gets out of
the comfort zones of the genre, even remodeling it here and there (a cozy noir maybe?). Hilary Davidson is a
born storyteller, a talented writer who reminds me a lot of Louise Penny; I
think Hilary’s still getting to know herself as a fiction writer (she’s already very experienced
as a travel journalist) and will continue to hone her skills as she explores
further into characters's minds, as Louise Penny is now doing. Even
though Hilary already received many accolades, I don’t think she has scratched
the surface of her potential yet. Already doing a great job, she surely has
many more good books to write. And I’ll be reading them.
You can visit Hilary Davidson on her website, follow her on Twitter @hilarydavidson and even meet her on Facebook.
JF
March 2012
-30-
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