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A review by kate66
Uncle Paul by Celia Fremlin
5.0
Well I loved this. I'd read a review saying it was old fashioned and dated but I didn't find it so at all, certainly no more so than any mid century Agatha Christie. There's maybe one or two references to women being hysterical or not being able to "hang onto" a man (rather than the man simply being a womanizer) but they are few and far between.
What you do get is the story of three sisters- Mildred who has returned to stay at a cottage she once rented with her husband (the eponymous Uncle Paul) who, it turned out, had murdered his first wife. Next we have Isabel who seems to get overwrought at the drop of a hat because she senses her husband may not love her and their two boys quite as much as she'd like him to. Finally we have Meg, sensible to the core (except perhaps when it comes to her love life as she has settled on the feckless Freddy for a lover).
The story follows a call from Isabel to Meg begging her to come and talk sense into Mildred who is intent on staying in the same cottage where Uncle Paul was arrested fifteen years before. Both Mildred and Isabel seem to think that Paul is now out of prison and coming for revenge on one or all of the sisters who caused his incarceration.
What follows is a wonderfully slow burn thriller with the tension ratcheting up by degrees until everyone is at screaming pitch.
Excellent book. Highly recommended for anyone who loves a Christie or a psychological slow burn thriller.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.
What you do get is the story of three sisters- Mildred who has returned to stay at a cottage she once rented with her husband (the eponymous Uncle Paul) who, it turned out, had murdered his first wife. Next we have Isabel who seems to get overwrought at the drop of a hat because she senses her husband may not love her and their two boys quite as much as she'd like him to. Finally we have Meg, sensible to the core (except perhaps when it comes to her love life as she has settled on the feckless Freddy for a lover).
The story follows a call from Isabel to Meg begging her to come and talk sense into Mildred who is intent on staying in the same cottage where Uncle Paul was arrested fifteen years before. Both Mildred and Isabel seem to think that Paul is now out of prison and coming for revenge on one or all of the sisters who caused his incarceration.
What follows is a wonderfully slow burn thriller with the tension ratcheting up by degrees until everyone is at screaming pitch.
Excellent book. Highly recommended for anyone who loves a Christie or a psychological slow burn thriller.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.