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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
As good as Rankin or McDermid!, 12 Nov 2002
“Sanctum” is Denise Mina’s fourth novel, but the first not to feature former psychiatric patient Maureen O’Donnell as the central character.
Lachlan Harriot’s wife, Dr Susie Harriot, has been convicted of murdering a notorious serial killer; she’s also been accused of having sexual relations with the man prior to the murder taking place.
Lachie is convinced that his ‘darling wife Susie’ is completely innocent and is determined to uncover evidence that will help to overturn the murder conviction.
The book is written from the point of view of Lachie through a series of diary entries that he composes in Dr Susie’s secret study each night. He documents his progress (or lack of) in coming up with evidence to make an appeal possible; he has as his disposal a plethora of information as his wife was actually the psychiatrist of the man whom she was accused of murdering. Lachlan is also struggling to come to terms with the forced changes in his life: he has a young daughter to look after with no mother around to help; the press are taking photograph’s that make him look fat & ugly; and horror upon horrors – his Mother and Father are coming to stay.
As the story progresses, Lachlan is forced to examine the fact that things at home have never been quite the way he always assumed them to be. Maybe Susie did commit the murders after all. But what reason could she possibly have to do so?
“Sanctum” is far removed from Denise Mina’s Garnethill trilogy: although murders have taken place and there are a few shocks and surprises as the story unravels, the atmosphere of the book is nowhere near as dark and disturbing as Mina’s previous novels.
The writing is wonderful – as we have come to expect from the author – and it’s quite possible that reading a shopping-list written by Denise would be a rewarding experience. One particular description of the Selfridges sweetie department had me salivating at the mouth; my plain old dairy-milk chocolate bar didn’t taste so good that night.
Overall: top quality plot, characterization and prose make this book a welcome addition from an exceptionally talented Scottish writer.
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Seriously good!, 18 Nov 2002
By A Customer
Denise Mina is now one of my all time favourite writers. Ever since her debut novel, her writing and skill as a story-teller has matured as her career progresses, becoming better and better with each book. Indeed, "Resolution", the final novel in her Garnethill trilogy was almost a masterpiece. With this, her first stand-alone novel, she gets even better. The story she tells is fascinating, told in beautifully compelling prose laced with the raw emotions felt by a man whose wife has been sent to jail for the brutal murder of a serial killer. (The story is told as the diaries of Lachlan Harriot, husband of the woman who is accused and imprisoned over the killing of five-times killer Andrew Gow.) The way the story is gradually unfolded through the diaries is absolutely fascinating, and propells the reader through the book in search of the next twist, the next bit of information. The characters are drawn really well, often a hard task when writing in the first-person. Lachlan Harriot is very likeable, and it is very enjoyable to follow the story through his eyes and perceptions. The issues Mina tackles are handled well, and she makes their exploration fasinating. the plot is very strong, and refreshingly original, and the final solution is completely unexpected, and some of the revelations are rather shocking, in fact. Overall, this is a fascinating, excellently written, compelling book which i would reccomend to absolutely anyone. Denise Mina's talent is growing and growing, to the extent that this book is one of the best things i've ever read.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A complex, well-crafted mystery that you will dream about, 8 May 2006
I couldn't put down this book. I was intrigued, desperate to make sense of the conviction of Lachlan Harriot's wife for the murder of Andrew Gow, a self-confessed serial killer who had been inexplicably released on appeal.
One's sympathies are torn apart. It seems so real: the vagaries of the British Justice System with the many documented cases of innocents in prison, a husband-and-wife relationship that turns out to be less than it seems, the almost mundane revelation that people change, we change, and that we can never really know what goes on inside another person’s head.
Denise creates a lifelike quality by cleverly maintaining several doubts in your mind. Are these case notes for real? (I had to do a search on the internet to satisfy myself about this.) Did Susie Harriot really murder Andrew Gow? She didn’t surely? And if she did then how and why? What really happened at Cape Wrath? Was he really innocent of murder? Surely not? And where does Donna, Andrew’s correspondence bride, fit in?
Other than a few, hardly noticeable lumpy moments in writing style, the book is extraordinarily well-crafted. Everything fits so well together. It’s worth reading a second time, now with the perspective of hindsight, to experience the story in a different way.
I am still occasionally arrested in my thinking to marvel at the interconnectedness of the plot and the wholly unexpected conclusion.
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