Chloë Ashby – Wet Paint

Cloe Ashby – We Paint

Eve has lost her mother when she left the 5-year-old and her father and never made contact again. Even though she somehow managed to cope with this experience, losing her best friend Grace totally throws her off the track. At 26, she is waiting in a bar despite having studied art at Oxford. Yet, she does not keep that job for long, just like any other job or the flat she shares. Nothing seems to linger in her life except for the painting she visits over and over again in a London museum and Max, a teenage friend. But even for Max it becomes increasingly harder to see how Eve throws away her life and does not accept any help.

Chloë Ashby’s debut novel brilliantly captures the protagonist’s being lost in the world after the death of a beloved friend that she has never gotten over. “Wet Paint” shows a young woman in survival mode who is far from unleashing her potential as she is straying in her life without aim or goal, from time to time colliding with reality but more often lost in thought and locked away in herself.

Eve is incapable of good relationships as she is far from being at ease with herself. Connecting with other people, being honest and really caring for them is impossible for her in state she is in. The only other being she shows real affection for is the young girl she babysits, but here, too, she is too lost in her thoughts and puts herself and the girl in danger.

The only constant in her life is a painting she observes closely and which calms her. Just the thought of the museum closing for a holiday makes her get nervous and when the museum loans her beloved pieces of art to another one, she almost freaks out, losing the last straw in her life.

It is not easy to watch how a young woman, lovable despite the way she treats others, is going down the abyss, yet, you can only help those that want to be helped. That’s what some characters also experience, they really care for her but can’t do anything to as long as she refuses to acknowledge her situation and to take necessary measures to improve her situation.

Not an easy read but in my opinion an authentic representation of the protagonist’s state of emergency.

Tony Parsons – #taken

Tony Parsons – #taken

When Jessica Lyle is abducted in front of her apartment, the kidnappers obviously made a big mistake. It was not the lovely mother of a baby-boy, but her flatmate Snezia Jones who was the target since she is the mistress of London’s drug dealer number one: Harry Flowers. This is personal, the woman has been taken to get to the underworld boss who is so distressed that he comes personally to DC Max Wolfe to offer his assistance. It does not help the police that Jessica’s parents immediately go public with the case, they want their daughter back and they give their mission a hashtag to spread the word: #taken. Yet, this media hype only leads to more people who have waited a long time for their chance to take revenge on Harry Flowers. Jessica remains missing and obviously, the time is running out.

I absolutely love Tony Parson’s series about DC Max Wolfe, the sixth instalment actually was one of the best so far. The author has created a plot that can really surprise due to the astonishing twists and turns.

This time, Max Wolfe’s team really has a hard job to do since they need the cooperation of the drug dealer Harry Flowers and have to rely on his information – which not only is all but reliable but also brings Max and also his daughter Scout in the highest danger. The threat comes from a very unexpected side but it was absolutely credible from a human point of view. Apart from the missing person’s case, Max has to struggle again with his ex-wife Anne and the question of how to educate Scout. Surprisingly, the loss of Max’s lover Edie Wren which happened at the end of the last book in the series did not really play a big role even though I expected this to have a large impact on him.

Again, a masterly crafted plot around a set of very unique characters makes a great read.

Jodi Picoult – A Spark of Light

Jodi Picoult – A Spark of light

An ordinary day at the so called Center in Jackson, Mississippi. Women come there to get information about how to prevent a pregnancy, others to end an unwelcome one. Protesters outside belong to the everyday work as well as security measures before getting inside. But on this sunny days, things go wrong when a man with a gun walks in to revenge the grand-child he never had. How can these women dare to decide on another person’s life? George Goddard will teach them a lesson. Outside, Hugh McElroy will try everything to keep the number of victims low, especially since his sister and daughter are in the Center.

When I started the novel, I was fairly astonished even before getting to the first chapter: the novel is told from the end and starts in the late afternoon of that day. This is quite an interesting idea and admittedly I had some doubts if this might actually work out. But it does and suspense is not diminished at all, since there is still a lot to be revealed even when going through the story the wrong way around.

I read other novels of Jodi Picoult before and again, the author did completely fulfil my expectations. She once more chose a highly controversial topic to which you cannot find an easy solution. The women as well as the doctors who are in the Center at the moment the shooter enters all have their individual stories that led them there: a pro-life activist in disguise, a nurse who doubts her boyfriend’s motivation of marrying her and who wants to offer him the possibility of going on in life without her, another young woman who herself had to grow up knowing how it feels if you are not loved and only a burden, a girl who just wants to get a pill – you don’t feel like they didn’t think about what they do before they decided to go to the Center on that day. But the situation between life and death – their life and death – puts the decision they had taken to another test. Especially poignant is the constellation of having the detective in charge’s daughter in the clinic. This adds another very personal aspect to the whole story.

It is not a story about pro-life vs. abortion advocates. Even though this is the initial starting point, Picoult focuses on the individual characters and their respective situation. Neither does she put their decision to the test nor excuse any decision taken. It could have been another connecting element that brings those characters together, what they experience is the moment in life where all could be over and when you inevitably have to question yourself about what is important for you and if it has been worth living. I really like her style of wiring and particularly the characters she creates, thus for me, another remarkable novel not to be missed.