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A review by tfitoby
Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman
3.0
I recently saw the film adaptation of this book, a wonderfully subtle socially aware crime film that suffers with a terrible postscript that nevertheless I rated as my favourite film of 2015 so far, without that movie I would never have dipped my toes in to the populist thriller waters that Laura Lippman's fiction resides in, in my mind at least. Whilst I respect her subtle way of writing a popular novel with a cast of characters that doesn't include one white male the subtlety ends there unlike with the Holofcener/Berg adaptation.
Lippman takes you on a roundabout route to a far more suitable postscript to the movie, travelling from an unforgivably shocking act in the prologue through some almost Carver-esque tableaux of every day existence for her wide cast of characters - major and incredibly minor; a tactic I applaud the use of in genre fiction, not everything has to be about driving the plot and thrills and shocking the reader, many miles can be gained through such careful and patient world building. However in this instance the tactic fails, Lippman places moments from certain major characters lives at odd intervals in her structured plotting, drawing attention to the mechanics of the craft and making it obvious that THERE IS A REASON for this brief paragraph that seemingly tells you nothing, therefore undermining the entire intended effect of shock and awe as clarity is eventually brought to proceedings.
In the grand scheme of contemporary female centric thriller novels this places down there with your generic Gillian Flynn's of the world, not a patch on your superior authors such as Megan Abbott and Sara Gran. But hey sometimes people want cheap and easy food instead of noir steak I guess.
Lippman takes you on a roundabout route to a far more suitable postscript to the movie, travelling from an unforgivably shocking act in the prologue through some almost Carver-esque tableaux of every day existence for her wide cast of characters - major and incredibly minor; a tactic I applaud the use of in genre fiction, not everything has to be about driving the plot and thrills and shocking the reader, many miles can be gained through such careful and patient world building. However in this instance the tactic fails, Lippman places moments from certain major characters lives at odd intervals in her structured plotting, drawing attention to the mechanics of the craft and making it obvious that THERE IS A REASON for this brief paragraph that seemingly tells you nothing, therefore undermining the entire intended effect of shock and awe as clarity is eventually brought to proceedings.
In the grand scheme of contemporary female centric thriller novels this places down there with your generic Gillian Flynn's of the world, not a patch on your superior authors such as Megan Abbott and Sara Gran. But hey sometimes people want cheap and easy food instead of noir steak I guess.