Book Review: "Perfect Little Children" by Sophie Hannah
“Perfect Little Children” by Sophie Hannah
Synopsis: All Beth has to do is drive her son to his soccer game, watch him play, and then return home. Just because she knows her ex-best friend lives near the field, that doesn’t mean she has to drive past her house and try to catch a glimpse of her.
Why would Beth do that and risk dredging up painful memories? She hasn’t seen Flora for twelve years. She doesn’t want to see her today—or ever again. But she can’t resist. She parks outside the open gates of Newnham House, watches from across the road as Flora arrives and calls to her children Thomas and Emily to get out of the car.
Except . . . There’s something terribly wrong. Flora looks the same, only older. Twelve years ago, Thomas and Emily were five and three years old. Today, they look precisely as they did then. They are Thomas and Emily without a doubt, but they haven’t changed at all. They are no taller, no older. Why haven’t they grown? How is it possible that they haven’t grown up?—HarperCollins
Rating (out of 5): 4
Review: I so love Sophie Hannah. I enjoy her so much that even though there’s some evidence that she might be an anti-vaxxer, I still read her books. That should tell you how much I love her. While I do read all of her books, I’m less a fan of her detective series—this says less about them and more about how much I really don’t like detective series. I’ve found almost all of her standalones quite good.
The premise of this book is a great hook, and as usual with Hannah’s books, we hop right into the action. Hannah has an unusual adeptness at plotting, and I always race through her books: this was no exception. I have some mild criticisms of Hannah—her female characters are always dogged and intrepid, the men a bit more tepid, though always supportive—it just becomes a bit formulaic. Her novels are also structured in a way that would remind you of a Sherlock Holmes story—there’s no expectation of supernatural explanation. On one hand this satisfies, and on another I often feel that too much logic is not always a good thing.
Our heroine, Beth, has a natural curiosity about a friend with whom she had a soured relationship—the cause of which is not immediately revealed. When Beth discovers that her friend’s children appear mysteriously not to have aged, she enlists her daughter and husband—with varying degrees of commitment—into solving the mystery.
I can’t reveal too much, other than that I read this very quickly and thoroughly enjoyed it. I never guess the endings of Hannah’s books and this was no exception.
Tl;DR: A solidly plotted and well-executed mystery that’s an excellent diversion, perfect for traveling or train/commute reading.
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