“This is it. Her head was strangely clear despite the blood filling up her nose and mouth. An inch from her eye, the floor of the toilet was that kind of speckled plastic you got in public buildings, the dots like islands marooned in a sea of blue.”
The prologue of this debut paints an evocative picture of an initially unknown character superbly depicted on the jacket cover.
As with this clever design, the one page opening hooks the reader and propels them into the investigation of a nightclub murder. Seamlessly divided into six parts, the novel’s intertwined structure focuses on three very distinctive characters:
Charlotte Miller
As the fiancé of a wealthy banker, with an idyllic London apartment, Charlotte is living the dream. With her imminent wedding to Daniel Stockbridge less than a week away, she is on the cusp of achieving everything she has ever yearned for. Yet she still longs to be accepted wholeheartedly by his parents, and especially her neighbours.
“Wishing she could lose whatever it was about her that so screamed middle-class.”
Her very essence is encapsulated within a few pages, so that the reader utterly comprehends who she is as a person, and more importantly, what would break her.
“She felt the weakness in her, that her world was built all around him like a fragile plant on a trellis, and if he pulled away it would tear her up.”
The consummate skill of the author to achieve this understanding so quickly, reveals an authoritative grasp on characterisation.
DC Matthew Hegarty
At the centre of the murder investigation, is a Detective Constable enamoured with London, and all it has to offer a single man on the up. A country boy now in the big city, his love affair with it has never waned.
“London had shops, theatres, and beautiful sexy women you hadn’t gone to school with since you were four.”
Yet it is this wandering eye, which allows him to pick up on every single detail of a room, and a witness’s gestures.
“You never knew. That was what he’d learned, if anything, from being in the police.”
So that despite overwhelming evidence, and the convictions of his superiors, Hegarty has a niggling doubt that something is awry. Although his susceptibility to new evidence leads him down a very dangerous path, which threatens to compromise his own command.
Keisha Collins
A key witness in the investigation, she is at first, extremely reluctant to help the Police. But with the chance to regain custody of her daughter, Ruby, from Foster care, she strives to uncover the truth for herself, despite the constant threat to her own safety.
“She looked about her and drew up her hood. You never knew who might be around.”
Consequently, she is the driving force of the novel. A living, breathing person who becomes part of a reader’s own life, to such an extent that it is hard to comprehend that she is fictional. Her blistering narrative is unforgettable.
“She’s a riot. Mouth like a sailor on shore leave.”
Keisha Collins is a character who jumps off the page and headbutts you.
With the uncompromising style of this debut, one gets the impression that the author has been held in restraints for several years, aching to write. Now with the opportunity to show readers what she can do, she relentlessly lets every part of her talent pour onto the page. The incredible speed with which the three narrative voices carry the reader along, makes this stunning debut unputdownable.
The merits of the writing has already seen the novel finish runner-up in the inaugural Sony Reader Award for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Which in turn landed the author her two-book publishing deal with Headline.
The high level of skill demonstrated by the author recently secured her the prestigious role as Director of the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA). The experience gleamed from this position will invariably mean the reader will enjoy a succession of riveting page-turners from this author throughout her career.
Released in February 2012, The Fall will see Claire McGowan burst onto the crime-ficition scene with one of the strongest narratives in the entire genre.