- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (5 Mar 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140269231
- ISBN-13: 978-0140269239
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.6 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 211,764 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
In a restored farmhouse, James and his French wife Sabine, their two children and their friends sit uneasily. All are implicated in a tragedy which, in a matter of days, will sweep aside the web of deception they have built around their lives.
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First Sentence
"Look through the face, Jessie. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
"Look through the face, Jessie. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Though I speak with the tongue of angels, if I have not love I am become as hollow brass...
17 Dec 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Graham Joyce is such a wonderfully reliable writer. He creates strongly realised characters and plots that often have a slightly other-worldly twist, but never leave the reader in doubt that he is in command of the here and now. The effect is often subtle and running parallel to the twist is always the possibility of a rational or psychological explanation. In The Storm Watcher, Sabine and James are on holiday with their daughters Jessie (11) and Beth (7). James (who unknown to Sabine is paying for everyone) has invited Matt and Chrissie, and the subtext here is that Matt was recently `let go' from James's Advertising Agency. James has also invited Rachel, his secretary, with whom he has had an affair, though Sabine doesn't know about that.
It becomes quickly established that one of the guests has a particular and perhaps not entirely healthy `bond' with the eldest of the children, Jessie. We are not enlightened as to who this is until near the end of the book, which does generate some added tension - though there is already plenty of that in the various relationships. The guests visit caves, swim in the villa's pool and slowly, as storm-clouds gather, the deterioration of the holiday atmosphere contributes to a riveting climax when danger threatens one of the children.
No one is entirely blameless in this atmospheric and compelling story which ends with a strangely fitting tragedy. I found myself glued all the way to this marvellously evocative story.
It becomes quickly established that one of the guests has a particular and perhaps not entirely healthy `bond' with the eldest of the children, Jessie. We are not enlightened as to who this is until near the end of the book, which does generate some added tension - though there is already plenty of that in the various relationships. The guests visit caves, swim in the villa's pool and slowly, as storm-clouds gather, the deterioration of the holiday atmosphere contributes to a riveting climax when danger threatens one of the children.
No one is entirely blameless in this atmospheric and compelling story which ends with a strangely fitting tragedy. I found myself glued all the way to this marvellously evocative story.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Joyce uses every childhood memory to create a feeling of discontent; he preys on traditions and uses pathetic fallacy at every turn to show the dysfunction that lies within us all. This is a somewhat melancholy book, designed to provoke a process of thought more than to satisfy curiosities. It is an incisive look at the way in which communication falls apart and the trauma of rebuilding bridges.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Not better than Tooth Fairy but still very very good. My awe for Graham Joyce is growing by the book.
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