Book Review: A Cry from the Dark

Reviewed By: Woodstock - RAM

A Cry from the Dark     Amazon US HC Amazon UK HC Amazon Canada HC
Robert Barnard
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Woman Main Character

Set in present day London, with flashbacks to the outback of Australia in the late 1930's. Bettina Whitelaw is an elderly Londoner and a successful author, who has begun working on a fictionalized version of her early life in a small Outback town. Her memories are enhanced by a visit from her brother who still lives in Australia. But as she works on her book by dictating into a tape recorder, she has the ominous impression that someone is visiting her apartment without her knowledge or consent, but why?

Other characters also begin to raise the reader's suspicions. Is her agent just a super efficient detail oriented colleague, or does she have sinister motives in insisting on a new will, and copies of completed tapes delivered to her promptly? Is a ne'er do well nephew just a young man without direction, or is he maneuvering to her detriment? Is a daughter who was given up for adoption some 50 years ago seeking to return to Bettina's life for a reestablished relationship, or does she have a malicious motive? And so on.

Barnard weaves into these present day concerns a series of Bettina's memories of her early teenage years in an isolated Australian village. Not at all idyllic, this setting is hot, dry, provincial. And near the end of her secondary school years, she is brutally assaulted. Does this long ago attack have any impact on present day concerns?

In Barnard's hands we are never completely sure. This is an excellent read, with the final moment of revelation arriving in the last few pages.

Highly recommended!

Woodstock - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Woodstock - RAM