Customer Reviews

Chickenfeed

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Minette Walters does a great job of weaving what could have been the real lives of Norman Thorne and Elsie Cameron around a true story from 1920's Sussex.

Norman was eventually convicted of the murder of his fiancé, Elsie, and hung, despite the doubts around the conviction at the time. The way that the author describes the events leading up to Elsie's death could easily have happened this way, and Chickenfeed casts even more doubts on Norman's conviction.

The pressures exerted on a poor young man, struggling to build a decent living from a small chicken farm, which has been paid for by his father, in the years following the First World War, are enormous. Elsie is depressed, and is obsessed with becoming a married woman, especially after her brother and sister both get married in the same year. She will do anything to become Norman's wife, and that obsession, one way or another, undoubtedly contributes to her tragic death.

The author leaves the conclusions to the reader, which I think is a good move.

This is a book that not only makes you think about what happened to these two young unfortunates, but of the wider picture surrounding the death sentence down the years. It takes less than two hours to read, and is well worth the effort.

Let me start out by saying I am a huge fan of Minette Walters. I think she is a superb writer gifted with the ability to develop unique plots and in-depth characterizations. No two of her books are ever quite the same but they have all been excellent reads. Up to now, that is. "Chickenfeed" is a book so bad that to call it sophomoric would be to insult sophomores! There is no character development, a boring plot and a complete lack of quality. Whoever came up with the idea of "quick reads" obviously sold it to Ms. Walters (and, I presume, others) as a quick way to pad her bank account while doing absolutely no work at all.
I am deeply disappointed in this work and I hope Ms. Walters is also, and that she will return to her normally high standards with her next effort.

This mini-novel by Minette Walters did not disappoint. I was so sorry when it ended, eager to read more from one of my favorite authors. I enjoyed her quirky mind-games and plot twists just as much as I have in her full-length books.

Minette Walters with Chickenfeed, provides a fictional account of the gaps between recorded history, of the events over the pre World War I years, which lead in 1924, to Elsie Cameron's hacked up body being found and the guy she claimed was going to marry her, hung for her murder. Norman Roche always claimed he didn't kill her. Of course no one, except the chickens on the farm knew what really happened, but you get to decide if the fictional version of Norman, murdered the fictional Elsie. How close these characters are to the real historic counterparts who knows, but it's an entertaining read.

In Walters tale, Norman a teenager who served a small tour of duty at the end of the War, is approached by the much older Elsie while attending church. In an era where social status means everything, and women are expected to get married and have children, in an era where due to the war there are more women than men, Elsie knows she is soon going to be too old to land a man and can't stand the thought of having to work the rest of her life while colleagues make fun of her behind her back for being single. She sees teenage Norman as the answer, and only answer to her future. Norman of course is quite happy for the sudden female attention, but soon works out Elsie probably isn't the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with. Unemployed and disillusioned with his government that didn't keep the promise to look after their soldiers, Norman borrows money from his father to start a chicken farm in East Sussex. He wrongly believes as he battles to survive in squalid conditions that each time Elsie comes to visit during the weekends, she'll be so put off by her possible future, they will just naturally drift apart. She doesn't though, and seems to do whatever she can by burning bridges in her own life to add pressure to him marrying her so she can take up the career of wife on his farm. Norman doesn't have the courage to just tell her to get lost, especially after she turns violent and tells everyone she's pregnant, even though Norman has never slept with her. Plus he's met someone else closer to his age, who he actually can picture a future with.

You've got to give the accolades to Walters for becoming part of the Quick Reads worthy cause to increase literacy levels by encouraging those who don't like to read beyond magazines and comic books to try fiction through cheap priced short story length fiction. I've never read any of Walters full length novels to compare, but this is a really good short story!