Anna is having a really tough time at home. Her marriage is not in good nick, they are barely on speaking terms. Then her husband Hamish declares he's going off with her best friend Estelle, and taking the children with him. Whilst her world is falling apart Anna seeks some respite by escaping into the world of true crime podcasts. The crime being investigated is one of multiple murders, a boat is sunk by an explosion, a father, son and daughter all drowned. Anna begins to recognise some of the people who were murdered. She knew them in her own past, that murky controversial past, that she has done her best to conceal or bury from everyone close to her knowing about. Estelle's ex boyfriend Fin Cohen, a drug addled pop star who has eating disorders, turns up on her doorstop. Anna decides maybe now is the time to sort out the mess from her past, and Fin initially comes along for the ride. They end up shooting across the length and breadth of the UK & Europe, trying to ascertain what happened on that boat, and who was really responsible for the deaths, making there own podcasts of their investigations as they go. Constantly trying to keep one step ahead of the hit-men assassins who are in ruthless hot pursuit.
Denis Mina's novel is structured very cleverly. Initially Anna's life and the true crime podcast alternate, but gradually the two story lines begin to intertwine and eventually become inseparable. Likewise you too are drawn into the complexity of relations between all the various protagonists. Its often unbearably tense or gruesome in its details. In one vividly written scene on a train, they are sharing a carriage with the two assassins who they've been trying to evade. The assassins start telling this tale about two assassin friends of theirs who hate each other, but its really about them. There's a palpable level of anxiety that something truly horrible is about to explode into being, but when and towards whom is unclear. Mina is a really compelling crime writer who I look forward to reading more by.
CARROT REVIEW 6/8
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