Social media drives ‘The Suspect’
Fiona Barton’s third thriller. Book review,
It appears that in her third thriller, “The Suspect” (Berkely, 402 pp. ★★★g), Fiona Barton continues to charm.
With her first book, “The Widow,” Barton looks at truth and how subjective it can be at times. In her second, “The Child,” the societal idea of motherhood is front and center. With her third and latest, “The Suspect,” Barton builds on those two ideas and asks the questions: Do we really know our children? And what are they capable of ?
The book opens with two girls, Alex and Rosie, who, traveling in Thailand, appear to have gone missing. Their parents are worried after the girls missed a scheduled phone call home. And even though by all accounts – their social media accounts – they are having a wonderful time, the parents of one, Alex, are adamant that they would not have let the appointed call time come and go. They contact the police and the case lands on the desk of DI Bob Sparkes, a Barton regular.
It’s August, a notoriously slow news month. Reporter Kate Waters, another Barton regular, needs a story. While working her contacts, in this case, DI Sparkes, she stumbles across the story of the two girls. One thing leads to another and the girls’ story goes international.
Waters is a veteran reporter and knows how to insinuate herself into the story, particularly with the people she is covering, as she did so brilliantly in “The Widow.” Her son Jake also is traveling in Thailand. That is her “in” with the family, a mother who also has a child traveling abroad, who can sympathize, who can understand. She cozies up to both the girls’ parents, the O’Connors and the Shaws. But as the investigation unfolds and Kate does what she does best, to unearth the truth, the story turns dark. And unexpectedly, Kate becomes part of the story. For the first time, she finds herself on the wrong end of the media storm.
Barton tackles the story through sev- eral narratives. After all, whose life is one-dimensional? Through the perspectives of Waters, Sparkes, Alex’s parents, Rosie’s parents and the emails Alex shared with her best friend Mags, the sordid tale of what happened to the girls begins to unfold. None of it appears to bear any resemblance to the magical trip unfolding on Facebook. And we are reminded that no one’s public profile and private life are ever truly quite the same: one is curated, calculated and edited, while the other is unchosen, impulsive and messy.
Barton’s classic use of short chapters and multiple narratives keep the reader on edge, helping to move the story along at a brisk pace. Her ability to sustain the tension while not overwhelming the reader is to be applauded. And, as in her earlier works, Barton’s skill in weaving both unexpected yet believable twists and turns right up to the final page is commendable.