Customer Reviews

Criminals

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This incredible book awed me. I still haven't been able to get it out
of my mind. Having read The Missing World, I wanted to get my hands on
another Margot Livesey book. Her beautiful language is filled with
dark humor and disturbing scenes. Criminals is about selfishness and
what it takes to do the right thing. On his way to visit his
emotionally imbalanced sister, Ewan finds a baby in a bathroom at a
bus station. Frantic, he takes the baby with him. He figures that once
he's settled at his sister's house he'd be able to report the missing
baby. Little does he know that it is all part of a man's scheme to
make a profit. To make matters worse, his sister becomes emotionally
and psychologically attached to the infant. There are many disturbing
and engrossing moments in the novel, especially its disarming and
surprising conclusion. This is one of the most memorable psychological
thrillers I have ever read. There's a thin line between good and evil
and moral and criminal behavior in the story. Are you searching for a
suspenseful and literary thriller? Look no further. Criminals is a
book that will keep you turning the pages in the wee hours of the
night.

CRIMINALS is my second experience with the fine writing of Margot Livesey -- her newest, EVA MOVES THE FURNITURE, drew me in. The threads of this story are delightfully convoluted -- the fact that one of the characters is a weaver may be an unintentional metaphor, but I suspect Ms. Livesey knew exactly what she was doing in assigning her that activity.

There are many issues addressed by both the story and the people who populate it so vividly. Honesty, in many guises and forms, is chief among them -- honesty in work, in relationships with family and lovers, with ourselves, and, ultimately, with the law. Some of the characters learn from the events that transpire here -- some do not.

There are three main branches of plot in this novel -- and one of them is a book within the book...

Ewan Munro, a respected banker, on his way to visit his sister Mollie in Scotland -- who is obviously distraught over her recent separation from her lover of several years -- finds a baby in a roadside mens' room, apparently abandoned. Through a series of good intentions and botched attempts to communicate his find, he winds up bringing it with him to his sister's home. In her pain and anguish, she latches onto the baby with all of her emotions, as a virtual lifeline to the world -- and it's a tether she is terrified to break.

We also see the story develop from the perspective of Kenneth, a young n'er-do-well, looking out for no one but himself, caring not a whit for the feelings or well-being of his girlfriend -- or her child. When any emotions arise within him to cast doubt on the worth of his devious schemes, he douses them with alcohol and rationalization.

Against this action is cast the novel-within-the-novel -- written by Mollie's departed lover. Within its pages, Ewan begins to see his sister's intimate secrets revealed -- and through it he discovers the reasons behind much of her mental trauma.

As the story moves along, Livesey skillfully brings these threads together, allowing the reader to follow them comfortably through her shifts of perspective. There is well-managed suspense here, combined with some very human, credible characters -- she builds and reveals their personalities and traits gently but thoroughly. It makes for an engrossing, rewarding read.

When a yuppie banker finds an abandoned baby girl on the floor of a bus station restroom, he ignites the passions, greed, and madness that were lying just beneath of the surface of seemingly ordinary lives. As we watch helplessly, the situation slowly spirals out of control, and the characters' carelessness, secrets, and lies lead inevitably to tragedy. Livesey shows us that we are all criminals waiting for the right set of circumstances to reveal our crimes. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and would recommend it. Not exactly a mystery, or even a thriller, it is a well-written, intelligent, and suspenseful novel which I COULD put down but looked forward to picking up again.

Livesey manages to make her readers question themselves; there is more than one ethical dilemma in this book. A baby is found, and taken care of by Ewan who has the best intentions. Only, his sister Mollie who is somewhat mentally imbalanced gets emotionally attached to the baby and manages through different logistical means to delay the report of the found baby to the police. Ewan has some problems of his own, too; he was a little bit careless about information that he revealed to somebody. There is a fine line between what you can and cannot do. Circumstances can arise that you had not (previously) thought of.

Somehow, it is apparent, the margins must be on your side. Anybody can become a criminal. Anybody can also become a victim. The point is that it takes only so little of a false step to make your life altogether different from what it was. Human beings constantly interact, and it is impossible to foresee all implications of your actions.

Livesey writes in a very interesting genre. This is a psychological thriller, but the focus is neither on the plot, nor on the solution. This is not a novel about being good or bad; it is a novel about understanding of the human mind. We are all human beings, and thus, we make mistakes. Sometimes we have to pay dearly for them. Sometimes somebody else has to pay dearly for them. This novel shows the need for understanding and forgiveness.

Livesey writes in a way that is not condemning, more exploring. What would happen if situation X arised? I, as a reader, was very much intrigued by the result. She also uses traditional literary techniques such as writing pieces of another book within this novel. The result is well worth penetrating.

A 4 month old baby girl is abandoned in a Perth, Scotland bus station in the gentsroom on the filthy floor next to a toilet.. Ewan, a decent young banker, picks her up and was on his way for help when he sees his bus taking off. He runs and catches it, figuring he'd turn the baby over to the police tomorrow.
His sister tho, who it turns out is having emotional/mental problems, foils him. Anyway, it turns out that the baby was........well I'm not going to say....that would be giving it away. Let's just say that sinister deeds are afoot.

Ewans take on this is;
"He (Ewan) had found a baby in a bus station and unwittingly kidnapped her, gone to Milan on business, sat in a chair that belonged to Lucrezia Borgia, slept with an Italian pianist in one way and Vanessa in another, met the deadly Coyle (Serious Fraud Office), discovered his sister had kept the baby, and accepted the offer of the woman who had betrayed him (insider trading) to drive them back here in a desperate effort to avoid grief and scandal."

A nicely told story of three honest well meaning people being burned by others. One a stranger, one not. Of "crimes" of various degrees.

BTW Ewan didn't kidnap this little girl. I don't know why, in the book, they keep referring to it as that. The kid was ABANDONED.

This is my first Margot Livesey.I'm going for her others now. Recommended.

Margot Livesey's "Criminals" is basically a tale of four or five interconnected lives, revolving around a series of accidents, miscommunications, intentional ignorance, and, in some cases, just flat out instances of human cruelty and greed. It is a mystery; it is not a mystery. Livesey belongs in a genre all her own, perhaps.

Mollie is the occasionally unbalanced sister of Ewan, stuffed shirt banker and well-intentioned brother. Ewan finds a baby abandoned in the bathroom of a bus station on the way to Mollie's, and before he knows quite what he's doing, he's boarding the bus with the baby in his arms, without having notified any authorities. What is interesting is the events that follow, and the unraveling of the lives of the people who become affected by this baby.

The novel counld have just as well been called "Greed" because it is basically this fault that lies at the core of each of these characters. Not necessarily all monetary greed, but also greed of the heart and (of course) greed of the loins. The suspense is a subtle one, that builds slowly from the beginning and ends up as one might have suspected. I found this to be the only fault, but perhaps it is not a fault at all, for while reading the novel, I felt as if I were a witness to a train wreck or some other human tragedy, peering through my fingers at what I suspect will inevitably turn out the way I'm afraid it will from the initial screeching of metal on metal.

As in many things in life, it is not the outcome that is necessarily interesting, but the journey on the way to that outcome.

"Criminals" is not a brilliant piece of writing; nevertheless, it's an entertaining foray into how easily anyone of us can rationalize ethical or moral lapses. It is both a cautionary tale and a psychological study.

London banker Ewan Munro is on his way to visit his troubled sister, Mollie, in Scotland. En route, he chances upon an infant abandoned in a lavatory. Concerned with missing his bus with his luggage in it and worried about leaving the infant, he grabs the baby and runs for his ride. Mollie immediately falls for this baby, who she later names Olivia, and although Ewan and Mollie agree to turn her over to authorities, they never do. One misstep after another results in Mollie's keeping Olivia, with Mollie concocting a story to justify the infant's presence in her life. Olivia was abandoned after all. Why shouldn't she be rescued? That's what good people ought to do, isn't it?

Ewan is doubly concerned -- with Mollie's eroding mental state, and an unrelated indiscretion on his part, which smacks of insider trading that could end his career. Overnight, it seems, respectable brother and sister have become criminals. It is what Ms. Livesey called "the bad behavior that comes from inattention." It is a mess these normally circumspect people have created for themselves, and the mess gets messier when Kenneth, Olivia's mother's boyfriend, extorts money from them in exchange for his silence.

Characterization is solid. Very early in the book, the reader already has a firm grip on the characters' personalities. Here's Ewan in the third paragraph: "This is what people don't like about me. Even my spontaneity is calculated." A few pages later is Mollie, in a letter to Ewan, writing of black birds swooping down on her, voices oozing from the table and the tap, bones buried beneath the stone floor. If that isn't a clue to her madness, I don't know what is.

The plot is original, but farfetched. The book-within-a-book device employed as a means to bolster Mollie's claim of betrayal by her estranged husband is distracting. I'm not panning the book, though; there are lessons to be learned here and as a whole, "Criminals" does provoke some introspection.

For every person its life is construed by the addition of small details. The odd part its that we, somehow arbitrarily, decide which of those are important, and when that happens, necessary we miss the big picture. Consecuently our grasp on life.

All the characters on this book have decided to make their life small and meaningless due to their lack of awareness. Even those who are cruel, their conduct is a result of their stupidity, more than out of inner evil.

Forthe characters in this book the accidental arrival of a baby in their life creates such pressure that just overwhelms their already very thin capacity to repond to changes in their neurotic patterns.

As expected the novel is construed upon the consequences of their emocional incompetence and their disastrous results, which at some points are funny. But more than that I agree with other reviewers that the author call upon us to medidate upon our petty obssesions and why, regardles of how important and significant we consider that they might be, the truth is that they are irrelevant and only refrain us from becoming happier persons.

This book is intricately plotted and suspenseful. It is also superbly well-written. I found myself moved to the next chapter despite work or family intrusions and wanting to get back as soon as I could until I finished the novel. Loved it and await Missing World. I'm thrilled they'll be a new one out soon to quench my appetite.

Someone at work was throwing this book away. I had never heard of it before, but as I am an avid reader and can't stand to see a book thrown out, I took it. Once I began reading it, I just couldn't put it down. Very entertaining and complex. Everyone I have recommended it to has enjoyed it thoroughly as well. Give it a try!