The Fall
Gilly MacMillan
(Century, 2023)
Nicole and Tom have it all, a strong marriage, a beautiful
home in rural Gloucestershire and, thanks to a lottery win, enough money to
build a new life there. The trouble is, when things most look like they’re
going right, is often the point at which they start to go wrong.
When Tom is
found dead in their swimming pool with a head injury that suggests suspicious
circumstances neighbours Olly and Sasha and their housekeeper Kitty are
supportive. As the investigation progresses though Nicole begins to wonder if
they are quite so friendly as they seem.
This is an accomplished psychological thriller that
will please MacMillan’s growing army of fans. She takes one of the genre’s
favourite tropes, the closed community, and uses it to create a miniature world
where nobody is entirely what they seem and every motive is likely to be an
ulterior one.
To this she adds a neat combination of the age-old
warnings to be careful what you wish for, and that money can’t buy happiness,
and our thoroughly modern obsession with reinventing ourselves. Each of her skillfully
drawn characters is, at some level, trying to be something they aren’t, engaged
in a plate spinning routine where everything is fated to come crashing down
sooner or later.
How that comes about and what, if anything, they do
with the smashed crockery of their hopes is what makes this book so enjoyable.
It also establishes Gilly MacMillan as one of the best writers of dark and
twisty thrillers currently at work.
Shots, April 2023
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