Hurting
Distance
Non-series
Sophie
Hannah
Soho
Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-56947-521-0 (1569475210)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-521-8 (9781569475218)
Publication Date: October 2008
List Price: $25.00
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Sundial-maker Naomi Jenkins is used to living with
secrets: three years ago something terrible happened to her, so
terrible that she never told anyone.
Now, Naomi has another secret: the man she has fallen passionately in
love with, unhappily married Robert Haworth. When Robert vanishes
without warning or explanation, Naomi knows he must have come to harm.
But the police are less convinced, particularly when Robert's wife
insists he is not missing.
In desperation, Naomi has an idea. If she can't persuade the police
that Robert is in danger, perhaps she can convince them that he is a
danger to others. Then they will have to look for him - urgently. Naomi
knows how to describe in detail the actions of a psychopath. All she
needs to do is dig up her own traumatic past ...
Review:
Sophie Hannah's second psychological thriller, Hurting Distance,
is an intricately plotted novel where the line between criminal and
victim (or maybe, more generally, those in the right and those in the
wrong) is so blurred it's hard to know which label to assign to each of
the principal characters.
Naomi Jenkins is a rape survivor. Three years ago she was raped but
never notified the police or told anyone else of her brutal attach. It
took this long for her to even be comfortable with a man again. Now she
has fallen in love with mild-mannered Robert Haworth, a married man
with whom she has met in the same room at a less than desirable motel
every Thursday evening from four to seven for the last three months.
When he fails to show up at their chosen time, and she
doesn’t hear from him for three days, she panics and is sure
his wife has done something to him. With this story in mind, Naomi goes
to the police to report Robert as a missing person. But the police
don’t appear too anxious to start a search for Robert. When
she realizes this she goes back again and tells them of her rape, but
this time identifies Robert as the rapist. Now they will not be
searching for a missing man, but a rapist. This lie leads Detective
Sergeant Charlene "Charlie" Zailer and her team through a tangle of
stories, people and places. Some truths are revealed, but many lies are
told. Although it is said that people you love are within Hurting Distance,
strangers are not. But is this a truth, or is this too a lie?
The intriguing plot of Hurting
Distance
is overshadowed by how the story is told (Naomi frequently speaks as if
someone else is around, though she is alone; or is she?) and in the
sometimes lurid descriptions of the characters and their actions. Rape
is a dark, terrible crime, and the author handles it sensitively,
covering the stages of humiliation, pain, fear, and ultimately recovery
but never forgetting. Still, the convoluted direction the narrative
often veers makes Hurting Distance
a far more difficult, and hence less enjoyable, read than it could, or
should, have been.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Hurting Distance and to Soho Press for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Hurting Distance? How would you rate it?
Novels by this author …
Little
Face
Soho Press (Hardcover), November 2007
ISBN-10: 1-56947-468-0 (1569474680)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-468-6 (9781569474686)
Hurting Distance
Soho Press (Hardcover), October 2008
ISBN-10: 1-56947-521-0 (1569475210)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-521-8 (9781569475218)
Omnimystery
keywords for Hurting Distance
...
Location(s) referenced: .
