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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The lying game,
By bonsai chicken (United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Stormwatcher (Hardcover)
This novel, originally published in the U.K. in 1998, concerns a group of friends vacationing at a remote house in the French countryside. High-powered executive James, who suffers from an unknown chronic illness, his French wife Sabine, their two children Beth and Jessie, James' secretary Rachel, with whom he has had an affair sometime in the past, James' longtime friend Matt, who was employed by James until he was ostensibly made redundant, and Matt's wife Chrissie, whose open sexuality tends to make people uncomfortable. The story centers around Jessie, the precocious, disturbed eleven year-old who is being secretly tutored in forbidden knowledge by a mysterious instructor. Jessie becomes the catalyst for increased tensions and rapidly fraying relationships among the adults, all of whom have secrets from one another. The approaching storm in the title takes on more than one meaning...
It's hard to put a label on this book. Though there are a couple very frightening sequences and a lot of suspense, it's not horror. Nor does dark fantasy seem appropriate. Magical realism? Perhaps. There are some events of questionable reality, but whether they are literal or psychological aberrations is open to debate. What it most certainly is is a fascinating relationship drama involving some extraordinarily well-realized characters, and a dark-edged mystery. The story itself is brilliantly constructed almost in a puzzle-like fashion. The background of Jessie's instructor is told in a parallel narrative to the main story, until it all comes full circle at the end, evoking a kind of symmetry. Novels rarely come as perfect as this. I can't say enough about Graham Joyce. This is the third consecutive novel I've read of his and they just get better. This Night Shade Books edition is signed and limited to 1000 copies.
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