Smoking MIRRORS
IS A MISSING TWIN LEAVING CLUES FOR HER SISTER?
The imaginary world of childhood is the backdrop to this sinister psychological thriller. It is set in a rambling old Edinburgh house where twin sisters El and Cat live inside a make-believe existence of pirate ships, witches, clowns and wild adventures. The stories they invent are colourful and complex, so vivid they feel real, and from the very beginning we know the fantasy has ended suddenly and very badly.
The story proper kicks off many years later when the girls are grown up. El has gone missing while out alone sailing her yacht and fears are growing that she is dead. Cat refuses to believe it. She is El’s mirror image twin and convinced that if something had happened to her sister then she would know instinctively.
For some time the pair have been estranged and Cat has been living in Los Angeles. Now she returns to the sinister gothic house where they grew up and to Ross, the man she loved but El married. Soon she is caught up once again in the secrets, lies and fantasies.
The sense of threat ramps up slowly but relentlessly as Cat starts finding clues that send her on a treasure hunt leading into her past. At the same time she receives a series of notes to warn her that she is in danger.
This is a disorienting and dark mystery, one of those books where it is difficult to work out what is real and what isn’t, and impossible to know who to trust. Clues often don’t make sense, even to Cat, who has buried so many of her memories and whose feelings towards her twin sister are constantly conflicting.
Creepy old houses and unreliable narrators tend to be commonplace in this sort of fiction. Also people in books always seem to be returning to the scene of an unhappy childhood. But even though the building blocks of this story are familiar, as a whole Mirrorland is an original and inventive novel.
Sharp writing and unexpected twists make for an atmospheric and gripping read.