- Hardcover: 340 pages
- Publisher: Headline Book Publishing (6 Dec 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0755323920
- ISBN-13: 978-0755323920
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.6 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,143,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Thorn
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Product Description
The Times
`Thorn is one of those rare and energetic books you can’t put down yet don’t want to end`
The Guardian
‘A compelling, if dark-hued, psychological thriller and first novel that eerily captures some of London’s more sinister undercurrents'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Really funny...oh dear.,
By Ms. M "La Moo" (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Thorn (Paperback)
Having looked at the other reviews of this novel, I can only conclude that they all must be personal friends of the author.Probably friends that owe her money. Maybe they want to stay on the right side of her,'cos they borrow her lawnmower now and again. I can think of no other reason why these reviews exist. I need to know: In what universe could this book compare to a Barbara Vine?, Nicci French,? A Dr Seuss book even? Those authors strive to MAKE SENSE. This book was chosen by my book group. We dutifully all read it and came back to discuss it...one of the few times in a group that's been going for years when we were all in agreement- it's toe-curlingly bad. We didn't so much as discuss it, but carry out a sort of autopsy. A few of us are certain that the writer created this while intoxicated- drunk while in charge of a laptop. The plot makes very little sense. Strike that- no sense AT ALL. The villain of the piece stopped short of twirling his moustache, brandishing his cloak and tying a girl to the railway tracks (just), he was so deranged, how he succeeded not being discovered when he could clearly not be trusted with a cotton bud was inexplicable. The area the book is set in is well known to us...a place where roaring middle- class mummies get visibly upset if you don't recycle your organic milk carton correctly- symbolic murders would cause much comment at the local farmers market. Trust me. We know. Which Queen's Park is this book set in? And wild life? Really? Still we have much to thank the author for. Until then, I hadn't realised that you could be embarrassed by a novel that wasn't pornography. We live and learn, eh? This book is so terrible it's become a bench mark for our group. All books ever after eventually invite either the comment 'Blimey that was dreadful...but still better than Thorn'. or 'Well it's great..not Thorn-like at all!' It's also encouraged other writers among us. After all, if this book could get published how bad could we possibly be? Read if you want an (unintentional) good laugh.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
riveting debut novel, not to be missed,
By tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Thorn (Paperback)
For mystery buffs who have missed the excellent Claire Francis' dark and subtly nuanced mystery novels can take heart: Vena Cork seems poised to take over this niche, and quite successfully too if her debut novel, "Thorn" is anything to go by.
Rosa Thorn's life, and those of her two children, Danny and Anna, were irrevocably changed when her artist husband, Rob, was killed in a hit-and-run accident. Now, almost a whole year later, Rosa is coping not only with the pain and grief of losing Rob, but with money problems as well. As Rosa and her children try to adjust to lives without Rob, a new school (for the kids) and a new job (for Rosa), the last thing Rosa needed was to have to contend with Anna becoming the apple of the local derelict's eye. And when a young girl is found murdered nearby, Rosa begins to fear for Anna's safety -- especially since she's beginning to sense that a dark and menacing presence is keeping an eye on her family... "Thorn" proved to be quite the page turner: it was suspenseful and gripping and full of riveting plot twists. I thought that Vena Cork did a rather masterful job of portraying the grief and sense of loss that Rosa, Danny and Anna felt, making the characters accessible and engaging. The manner in which she layered the suspense, building on the tension with each plot twist was wonderfully done as well. All in all, this was a terrific debut novel, worth sitting up and taking notice of. It was absorbing and compelling and possessed coloured the kind of dark, menacing atmosphere you want your mystery novel to have. Definitely an unputdownable.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A thriller that just isn't that thrilling.,
By Script Angel (Solihull, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Thorn (Paperback)
I'm afraid that I found this a very disappointing read overall. Although neither the prose nor the story itself could be said to be very poor they both failed to really engage me. The greatest problem is the structure of the novel which is incredibly uneven in terms of content and pace. For the first two-thirds of the book very little actually happens. There is some sense of unease created by the presence of Mick O'Brien and the dead animals being left outside the house but this is too flimsy to sustain such a huge chunk of the novel. The prose itself is quite naïve and never really conveys the levels of menace and fear which the story requires.
In addition, because the final revelation is so poorly seeded through the novel I'm afraid I found what should have been a dramatic climax instead completely farcical. We seemed to lurch in a moment from dull and pedestrian to high drama. The novel essentially fails to build towards its climax properly so instead of being swept along on a wave of intrigue, mystery, suspense and tension I felt completely adrift from the action and therefore viewed it with total detachment and disbelief. The other great weakness in the novel is the characterisation. The author only really seems comfortable portraying a certain social class of character. Some of the depictions of general family life for a mother of two teenagers did ring quite true. By contrast the depictions of the children's new `working class' friends are pretty awful. They are stereotyped by their names (Delroy, Dwaine, Crystal, Athy), by their actions (drugs and extreme bullying) and by their speech (inarticulate with a lot of teeth-sucking by the afro-Caribbean mother). The further supporting cast were equally unconvincing from the hugely important Tom Brice down to Mick the local nutter.
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