Sunday, August 29, 2004

A Crime in the Neighbourhood

A Crime in the Neighbourhood \ Suzanne Berne \ Penguin Fiction





What a breath of fresh air! I picked up this book because I wanted something similar to Sydney Sheldon and Mario Puzo, but with less blood and gore. The cover was intriguing enough, and the title beckons me into what I thought would be a journey to uncover the crime and the criminal.
I was dead wrong.
The crime that occured in this particular, picture-perfect,1970's town is merely a backdrop to the story of a girl dealing with the realities of life. The fact that her parents' split up happened around the same time as the murder convinced her that everything happening in this universe are intricately tied in with each other. Everything is worth noticing, worth noting down in her little spiral notebook. She became obsessed with jotting down every little detail of every occurance and keeping documentary evidence of each one. Years later, as an adult, she reflected on this as a desperate move to feel protected, her father having left the family for no better reason than to be with another woman.