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annegreen 's review for:
The Other Half
by Charlotte Vassell
Billed as “an incredible crime debut”, Charlotte Vassell’s “The Other Half” is receiving rave advance notices proclaiming she is about to become our next favourite crime writer. The book is due for release by Faber & Faber in January 2023 and it’s the first in a new crime series by this young and talented author.
I can see why the book is creating a stir. Vassell writes with energy, wit and a clever satirical eye. For those who love “whodunnits” every desire will be well satisfied – the shocking discovery of a body following a slap-up birthday party for Rupert Beauchamp (a filthy rich, rakish, champagne guzzling, handsome, inveterate womaniser, snob and all-round obnoxious prat), the pursuit of various red herrings by the police investigators on the case and many twists, turns and surprises before the totally unforeseen finale.
Part of the strength of the book is that it’s not just a whodunnit. Along the way Vassell takes aim at some sitting ducks of contemporary life and English life in particular. She says her aim was to highlight the glaring disparities between the have’s and the have not’s, evident everywhere but more blatantly obvious in the UK with its archaic class system and, according to Vassell in London, where the book is set. A native Londoner, Vassell comments in a note about the book that “in London you can literally be from the wrong side of the tracks … the multi-million-pound townhouse overlooks a block of damp council housing”. On the bus you see “two worlds rubbing shoulders … coughing over each other, swaying together as the bus turns a bend, but so impossibly separate.”
Hence the title of the book. It’s a novel take on the ageless theme of insiders and outsiders, one brought vividly up to date in the engaging characters of DI Caius Beauchamp (pronounced differently from the toffee-nosed Rupert’s surname) who is part Jamaican, and DS Matt Cheung, his offsider, who is part-Chinese. Her other target is the modern-day cult of self-improvement and all its offshoots like joggers, gym addicts, superfood junkies and the whole foods movement. Instagrammers, so-called influencers on social media and the overhyped affiliate marketing crusade come in for their share of lampooning, as does the British reverence for the worlds of Oxbridge, classical scholarship, elite institutions, the posh, the entitled, the filthy rich and those with a pre-ordained path to the House of Lords.
If you’re looking for a page-turner, a laugh and entertainment with a subtle message, you’ll love this book.
Many thanks to Faber & Faber and NetGalley for providing me with an advance review copy of the book.
I can see why the book is creating a stir. Vassell writes with energy, wit and a clever satirical eye. For those who love “whodunnits” every desire will be well satisfied – the shocking discovery of a body following a slap-up birthday party for Rupert Beauchamp (a filthy rich, rakish, champagne guzzling, handsome, inveterate womaniser, snob and all-round obnoxious prat), the pursuit of various red herrings by the police investigators on the case and many twists, turns and surprises before the totally unforeseen finale.
Part of the strength of the book is that it’s not just a whodunnit. Along the way Vassell takes aim at some sitting ducks of contemporary life and English life in particular. She says her aim was to highlight the glaring disparities between the have’s and the have not’s, evident everywhere but more blatantly obvious in the UK with its archaic class system and, according to Vassell in London, where the book is set. A native Londoner, Vassell comments in a note about the book that “in London you can literally be from the wrong side of the tracks … the multi-million-pound townhouse overlooks a block of damp council housing”. On the bus you see “two worlds rubbing shoulders … coughing over each other, swaying together as the bus turns a bend, but so impossibly separate.”
Hence the title of the book. It’s a novel take on the ageless theme of insiders and outsiders, one brought vividly up to date in the engaging characters of DI Caius Beauchamp (pronounced differently from the toffee-nosed Rupert’s surname) who is part Jamaican, and DS Matt Cheung, his offsider, who is part-Chinese. Her other target is the modern-day cult of self-improvement and all its offshoots like joggers, gym addicts, superfood junkies and the whole foods movement. Instagrammers, so-called influencers on social media and the overhyped affiliate marketing crusade come in for their share of lampooning, as does the British reverence for the worlds of Oxbridge, classical scholarship, elite institutions, the posh, the entitled, the filthy rich and those with a pre-ordained path to the House of Lords.
If you’re looking for a page-turner, a laugh and entertainment with a subtle message, you’ll love this book.
Many thanks to Faber & Faber and NetGalley for providing me with an advance review copy of the book.