Book of the week
Sunburn by Laura Lippman (Allen & Unwin) $32.99 In the 21 years since publishing her debut novel, American writer Laura Lippman has bagged crime fiction’s highest awards – the Edgar, the Seamus, the Agatha. But to come to Sunburn expecting a classic whodunnit is to court disappointment.
Lippman’s work is always subtler than a parade of clues and an outsider cop, more nuanced than an edge-of-the-seat thriller. Here, the former Baltimore
journalist takes a step in a new and noirish direction.
Sunburn, set in 1995, is a near-contemporary version of the classic noir of James Cain’s 1934 masterpiece The Postman Always Rings Twice. It’s no
surprise to learn of Lippman’s admiration for that work; she cites it as an inspiration, calling Sunburn "a straight-out homage’’ to the genre.
Centre stage is glamorous redhead Polly Costello – if that’s really her name – first seen through the eyes of Adam Bosk, a good-looking private investigator. He has been sent to find her by a client who
believes Polly has a large insurance payout and owes him a cut. The client was the business partner of Polly’s late, second husband.
How did he die? Now there’s a question.
Watching Polly, Adam sees an unexpected scene play out: she walks out on her husband and little girl. In the small town of Belleville, Delaware, Polly gets off her escape bus, so that’s Adam’s next stop, too. He moves into the same seedy motel, gets a job as cook in the same bar/restaurant, telling her he is passing through, and becomes increasingly captivated by his prey.
Soon he is in bed with her and a passionate affair begins. Adam knows much more about Polly than he lets on, and what he finds out is increasingly disturbing. But he is hooked – his feelings for her are out of control and there is no going back.
Polly, a woman men find irresistible, has a plan – one motivated by money, as she makes clear at the outset. She is, Lippman has said, ‘‘a woman who plays a very long game’’. At once vulnerable yet manipulative and ruthless, Polly falls for Adam. But what will happen when she learns he was hunting her? And what if he comes between her and her end
goal? ‘‘No one plans for love, much less decides to love a man she cannot trust.’’
We may not like these characters, but we are ensnared in their web of intrigue and deceit. The urge to know what happens to them is irresistible. Lippman, with more than 20 crime novels to her credit, has created a masterly suspense story in which the tension is ratcheted high even when, on the surface, nothing much is going on. Those ‘‘what if?’’,"what will happen when?’’ questions suck the oxygen from the air until the breathless, unexpected finale.
–Sue Green
We may not like these characters, but we are ensnared in their web of intrigue and deceit.