Prison system drama a wild ride
White Noise By Mercedes Mercier, Harpercollins, $35 .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
Something a bit different, and something rather good.
Prison psychologist Laura Fleming has to decide whether it’s safe to release a rather charming inmate, Justin Jones, who has been put away for a violent crime. Her predecessor has gone on maternity leave, and she has very little time to assess the inmate — but something tells her he’s not quite as rehabilitated as he seems.
Laura has history. As a paramedic she was badly injured and her colleague was killed when they went to a callout, and as a result she was addicted to painkillers. One incident meant she was denied access to her daughter, and she is rebuilding her life slowly.
What she doesn’t see — and it takes a while for a reader to realise too — is that her husband is a controlling manipulator. Meanwhile, she has to prove Jones is not safe, even though his prison record is immaculate.
She believes he’s a psychopath, but has to prove it and very quickly. At the same time, things are happening to her and her family that she suspects are being controlled from prison. Proving what is happening while not seeming paranoid makes this a nail-biter.
Author Mercier works in the prison system so she’s in the perfect space to write about this subject. It’s a wild ride.
— Linda Thompson
Deception By Lesley Pearse, Penguin Random House, $37 .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
Lesley Pearse is a master of a good yarn, and she’s straight into the story the moment you start reading.
Alice didn’t know her mother very well, because she never talked about her childhood or past adult life.
But when her mother dies, Alice is approached by a stranger who says he’s her real father, and that he’s been in prison for bigamy for marrying her mother while he was already married.
That’s a good start, and that’s just in the first few pages.
Alice and her sister had accepted that their mother Janet/sally/fleur was a little different — they just didn’t know how much she kept to herself.