What
happened to little Bella? The 2-year-old girl vanished from the garden and has
never since been seen. Soon a man comes into the focus of the police: Glen
Tayler. He recently lost his good job at a bank and now earns his living as a
delivery man. From the outside he seems to live the perfect life: small house,
nice wife, good job. But behind the scenes, a lot is going wrong: Jean Taylor
is under constant surveillance of her husband and there are many things he
hides from her. Only when the police knock on their door she becomes fully
aware of whom she is married to – and suspicious of what a crime he might have
committed.
I had very
high expectations but admittedly I am a bit disappointed. The novel lacks the
suspense and thrill I had anticipated. Yea, of course, throughout the story you
can never be completely sure who was responsible for which crime, which
character is not telling the truth and how all the small pieces, narrated in discontinuity,
integrate into one story. What irritated me the most was the protagonist, the
widow, Jeanie. At first I had the impression of a very clever and canny woman
who knows exactly what she is doing and who is a perfect actor at the same time
playing with the press and portraying the image they want to have. I thought
she developed into that strong woman from the grey mouse, but while reading she
did not become cleverer but duller and naïve – it just did not make sense. The
woman of the first few pages is not the one we meet at the end – and those
parts play at the same moment. Also her antagonist, journalist Kate, sometimes
seemed to be a very battlesome character, but then again she is rather stupid
and weak. All in all, a good story, but some aspects just do not fit together
and from this type pf novel I expect a bit more thrill.
