At first, it was difficult to remember all characters - they made fast appearances within first few pages. And there were quite a lot of them. Jules's (not Julia!) quiet little world is shaken to the core when she gets news that her elder sister Danielle (Nel!), who she has been estranged with since years, has committed suicide and that she will have to take care of Lena, Nel's teenage daughter, who hates her for always ignoring her mother.
Then there are the residents of Beckford. DI Sean Townsend is a capable officer but there is a shadow there somewhere of some tragedy - recent or past, it is hard to figure out. His wife, Helen, is rather plain-looking but there is steel beneath that soft exterior. Sean's dad Patrick is well-respected in the community but the town's psychic (I forget her name!) cannot help but suspect that he had something to do with the death of his wife. Then there is Katie, Lena's 15-year old dear friend who had ended her life but no one knows why. Her younger brother Josh is evidently keeping some secret. Her mother is trying her best to cope with her grief but blames Nel for Katie's death. Mark Henderson is a handsome teacher - perhaps a tad too handsome for the 'little town of Beckford'. There is a police officer who is assisting Sean in the investigation of Nel's death.
And surrounding all this are two structures. One of them is man-made. The other was fashioned by Nature. Wards' Cottage has a bloody history associated with it - Annie killed her husband there and then jumped into the pool. Ah yes, The Drowning Pool. A place where countless women, through centuries, have reportedly ended their miserable sad lives. But Nel had been sure that the pool was a convenient place to get rid of women who had become 'troublesome' for someone or other. Did her conviction made someone get rid of her? Or did she commit suicide? Was Jules justified in hating her all these years?
We get some answers and some, we don't. Of course, the author tells her whether Nel killed herself or was murdered by someone. She tells us why Jules hated her for almost all her life. She also tells us about why Annie killed her husband, why Libbie Setton was drowned in the pool and how Sean's mom died. But she doesn't tell us about how Jeanie died. She doesn't tell us about how Patrick ended up with Nel's locket, though we can make an educated guess. We are kept wondering about how town's psychic knows things that even the cops are unaware about. And about what exactly is the relation between Patrick and Helen. And about what happend to Henderson. The twist in the tale sounds lame and artificial, as if the author thought of it at the very last minute.
Needless to say, the book left me with a sense of being cheated by the author :-(
Then there are the residents of Beckford. DI Sean Townsend is a capable officer but there is a shadow there somewhere of some tragedy - recent or past, it is hard to figure out. His wife, Helen, is rather plain-looking but there is steel beneath that soft exterior. Sean's dad Patrick is well-respected in the community but the town's psychic (I forget her name!) cannot help but suspect that he had something to do with the death of his wife. Then there is Katie, Lena's 15-year old dear friend who had ended her life but no one knows why. Her younger brother Josh is evidently keeping some secret. Her mother is trying her best to cope with her grief but blames Nel for Katie's death. Mark Henderson is a handsome teacher - perhaps a tad too handsome for the 'little town of Beckford'. There is a police officer who is assisting Sean in the investigation of Nel's death.
And surrounding all this are two structures. One of them is man-made. The other was fashioned by Nature. Wards' Cottage has a bloody history associated with it - Annie killed her husband there and then jumped into the pool. Ah yes, The Drowning Pool. A place where countless women, through centuries, have reportedly ended their miserable sad lives. But Nel had been sure that the pool was a convenient place to get rid of women who had become 'troublesome' for someone or other. Did her conviction made someone get rid of her? Or did she commit suicide? Was Jules justified in hating her all these years?
We get some answers and some, we don't. Of course, the author tells her whether Nel killed herself or was murdered by someone. She tells us why Jules hated her for almost all her life. She also tells us about why Annie killed her husband, why Libbie Setton was drowned in the pool and how Sean's mom died. But she doesn't tell us about how Jeanie died. She doesn't tell us about how Patrick ended up with Nel's locket, though we can make an educated guess. We are kept wondering about how town's psychic knows things that even the cops are unaware about. And about what exactly is the relation between Patrick and Helen. And about what happend to Henderson. The twist in the tale sounds lame and artificial, as if the author thought of it at the very last minute.
Needless to say, the book left me with a sense of being cheated by the author :-(
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