Julia Wallis Martin

I found this book on a librarians site in a category called reservoir noir. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, there are a fair number of books that focus on villages that were flooded in the ponds behind newly built dams. A couple of prominent ones in the category: Reginald Hill's On Beulah Height and Peter Robinson's In a Dry Season. Likeness in Stone is just as good. Martin is a new writer to me, but I'll definitely give her another shot on the basis of this one. The book is generally very well managed (stagecraft shows a bit too much here and there, but nothing too egregious) with lots of insightful interiority worked well into the plot.… (altro)

This is the first book by J.Wallis Martin that I have read and believe that this book was shortlisted for some prestigious literary award. Now while I would not profess to be an expert in this particular genre, I felt it showed that she has potential but is not yet the finished product.

On the up side.The storyline ran at a lively pace making you want to turn over the next page to see what was coming up next, in fact it was easy to forget that only a month had passed from Gary's disappearance and the eventual conclusion of the story.There were some good atmospheric descriptions of the surroundings for the crime and the central characters were fairly well drawn. I also rather liked the prologue as it had me guessing quite where it fitted into the overall plot until quite near the end.

However, on the down side. For me the lead investigator Parker would probably have been better as a Private Investigator rather than a high-flying Policeman, he seemed to do everything himself with little feedback from the men around him. Something of a maverick rather than a leader of men. Also quite what the profiler Hanson added to the investiagion is open to some debate, he seemed to be more distracted by his own personal relationship hang-ups and had only minimal imput into actually solving the crime. In fact wanting to go and stay in his old matrimonial home rather than a hotel seemed rather freaky to me.Perhaps it was just fashionable to have his presence there?

In summary I felt that the story gave a somewhat original twist on both the mindset of paedophiles and in particular how they are able to target, befriend and ultimately betray vulnerable victims, boys in this case and also into why boys are taken in by them. It was a very readable book but it just lacking in that little something that would have made it a special read. As I said at the top the author shows promise and if this is just another step along the evolutionary trail then with more experience and in-depth knowledge she could become a very good one.… (altro)