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A Room Swept White
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Fliss Benson is a TV producer struggling to deal with a personal tragedy in her own life. She receives at work an anonymous card which consists of 16 numbers arranged in four rows of four. These numbers mean absolutely nothing to her. At the same time, she is handed a particularly unwelcome assignment: she has to work on a documentary about cot death and three mothers accused (wrongly, it seems) of murder: Helen Yardley, Sarah Jaggard and Rachel Hines. The controversial Dr Judith Duffy, who was responsible for the arraignment of the women after the death of their children, is now under investigation for misconduct, and the women have been set free. Fliss Benson’s reluctance to work on the film springs from a particularly personal issue -- involving both cot death and the suicide of someone very close to her.
This is the arresting premise of Sophie Hannah’s A Room Swept White, and it's further proof (if proof were needed) that since her remarkable debut with Little Face, Hannah seems almost unable to put a foot wrong in the arena of the psychological thriller. The scenario here darkens when one of the three women, Helen Yardley, is found dead at her home. On the body is a card with the same layout of numbers arranged in four rows of four that Fliss Benson had been sent. She is soon faced with both intimidating moral dilemmas and physical danger. Par for the course, in fact, for a Sophie Hannah heroine. Apart from the sheer storytelling skill which is the sine qua non of Hannah's work, one of the most impressive aspects of her books is a subtlety with which she is able to address a variety of moral arguments -- such as the massively divisive issue of cot death in this book. In these areas, the tabloid press is always looking for villains, be they child-killing mothers or heartless social workers. Hannah is well aware that such moral issues are never clear cut, and the fact that she is able to address such subtleties in the context of a page-turning thriller is a mark of her skills. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
'Enthrallingly complex . . . A multi-stranded narrative that grips'
(The Sunday Times )'Intriguing, unnerving and engrossing . . . the most adept of psychological thrillers, in which - as with Hannah's other novels - the psychosis lying just below the surface of the human personality is exposed . . . A remarkable novel, and an adventure to read . . . Undoubtedly a first-class whodunit that will keep you reading long into the night.'
(Scotsman )'Sophie Hannah has quickly established herself as a doyenne of the 'home horror' school of psychological tension, taking domestic situations and wringing from them dark, gothic thrills . . . Combining probability theory, poetry and murder, this is a densely plotted suspenser with a coded puzzle that would grace a Golden Age mystery.'
(Financial Times )'A perplexing thriller with intrigue and infanticide . . . It's a given that nothing will be as it seems in the latest psychological thriller from Sophie Hannah, who marries complex plots with crisp, conversational prose'
(Marie Claire )'As Hannah sees it things are rarely clear cut and it is this moral ambivalence that makes her fiction so provocative'
(Daily Express )'Hannah takes domestic scenarios, adds disquieting touches and turns up the suspense until you're checking under the bed for murders . . . it's this real-life research that helps make it so convincing - and so unsettling'
(Independent )'Hannah is a master of intense psychological thrillers . . . Full of twists and turns, and terrifying, too' ****
(Heat )'When it comes to ingenious plots that twist and turn like a fairground rollercoaster few writers can match Sophie Hannah. Hannah's complex and beautifully written tale kept me guessing right till the very last page.'
(Daily Express )'A convincing narrative of miscarried justice and individual trauma . . . Hannah produces an enthrallingly complex plot whose serious themes are never undercut by her knack for comedy'
(The Times )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another good pyschological thriller,
By
This review is from: A Room Swept White (Paperback)
The strength of this book, for me, was the subject matter. I love a good pyschological thriller anyway but you'd have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by cot deaths and cases involving the deaths of babies which are at the centre of this book. It's topical, relevant and current. And it made me think and ask myself questions that I had perhaps not asked myself before - A Room Swept White is a very clever book that looks at this whole issue without taking sides.
The story is told in both first person (from the view point of Fliss Benson, a TV producer who is pretty low down the pecking order) and also the third person so the reader is privvy to all the goings on in the case. The book starts with the murder of Helen Yardley who was aquitted a few years ago of killing her two babies and spent 9 years in jail for their murder. She teamed up with a TV producer / Journalist called Laurie Natriss and together they formed JIPAC (Justice for Innocent Parents and Carers) and subsequently set about securing the releases of other women who had also been convicted of killing their own babies or those in their care. The morning after Helen's murder, Fliss Benson is suddenly promoted and asked to carry on making the documentary about the released women, and Laurie Natrass leaves the company. That same morning Fliss received in the post a small white card with 16 numbers on it, which means nothing to her until she finds out that Helen has the same card left on her body by the murderer. What follows is a quest to not only find Helen Yardley's killer before he strikes again but also to get to the truth about whether she did or didn't kill her two boys. What let this book down for me were most of the characters. I understand that it's a plot driven book rather than character driven (which is why I love thrillers as they're fast paced and you want to know what's going on rather than what a character is wearing) but even so, I didn't actually like most of them. Fliss, the first person protagonist, was made out to be incompetent and ditzy and I could never fathom her reason for witholding some evidence from the police. I had no mental image of her and she felt very one-dimensional, as did some of the other big characters. There was no-one at all in the book whom I actually routed for. What I did like about the book, however, was the whole issue around the enormity of responsibilty in these cases and just how easily the media can make us believe one thing and then another. All throughout the book I though I believed one thing and then realised that I actually had made a decision on very few facts. Once other facts came to light I was swayed again (in fact several times). Either I am incredibly gulliable or the media is way more powerful than even I imagined. The whole issue around medical witnesses in legal cases was fascinating and certainly an eye-opener (and you may end up thinking differently by the end of the book than you did at the start). To conclude, I really enjoyed this book. Despite the rather wooden characters and some ill-placed humour (Fliss's comedic inner monologue felt a little uncomfortable to read sometimes as it didn't fit with the overall tone of the book), the actual plot and subject matter was fascinating, surprising and gripping.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
not sure...,
This review is from: A Room Swept White (Hardcover)
A young woman making a TV documentary about women wrongly imprisoned for killing her babies received a mysterious card with rows of numbers on it. So far, so intriguing. Where Hannah excels is in kicking off with a high-concept bewildering question that is gradually answered. I think this is one reason why her books sell so well: becaue that central riddle can always be summed up in a few lines, so she gives great blurb.
Another of Sophie Hannah's strengths, apart from the flawless line-by-line writing you'd expect from an award-winning poet, is that she combines madcap situations with hard-hitting issues. When it works, like in The Point Of Rescue, it's brilliant, chilling and innovative. But this time she's writing about infant mortality and I just think it's in shockingly bad taste to write a zany, comedic murder mystery about something so profoundly distressing - especially when we are all aware of the real-life cases that inspired the book. That left a nasty taste in my mouth. And finally, I'd also like to have seen a bit more of Charlie Zailer and Simon Waterhouse's relationship in this book. They are such strong, complex, sympathetic characters but I just didn't see enough of either of them here. The the will they / won't they teaser is central to the book's appeal but after four years or whatever it is, I'd love to see a little progress being made between the two.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Psycological thriller genres answer to Jodi Picoult,
By
This review is from: A Room Swept White (Hardcover)
I must admit to being a fan of Sophie Hannahs second and third books- The Point of Rescue and Hurting Distance, but I almost didnt buy this new one as I really hadnt enjoyed her last book, but I am so glad that I did!
Hannah is back on form with this one, she takes yet another mind blowing and contraversial topic and leaves the reader with good book neck ache and researching on Google into the small hours. The story is capturing, believable and touches on a very sad and highly publisised subject in recent years- she looks at it from every possibility and angle and leaves to reader desparate to discover the ending. If you've ever enjoyed a Sophie Hannah novel you will not be disapointed. If youve never heard of her you will be rushing out to buy her other books once youve finished this one.
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