THE TURNOUT

Megan Abbott HACHETTE/VIRAGO, RRP $32.99

If, as one of Megan Abbott’s characters contends, The Nutcracker is all about desire, then the American writer has hit the mark in using Tchaikovsky’s ballet as the backdrop here. The first chapter sets the scene – the ballet school run by the two sisters Dara and Marie and Dara’s husband Charlie – and the last two sentences spear the reader into what is an engrossing, lyrical story. Chapters are broken into sections, each opening with a drop capital that might evoke the sound of slipper on dancefloor but flowing together with an assured movement rendered even more dance-like with the recalls and returns of repeated phrases. There may be an occasional quiver but Abbott never stumbles in this claustrophobic, Gothic exploration of the entwined trio and the violent disruption wrought by the arrival of an outsider. As the season of The Nutcracker looms, the pressure grows, secrets are revealed and – this being an Abbott book – you just know someone’s gonna pay.

JASON NAHRUNG VERDICT: En pointe