Two new books explore troublesome women with pasts they want to forget
Good mysteries are actually tragedies in disguise. The best of them, from Agatha Christie to Grantchester (based on James Runcie’s short stories), are dark tales of loss and betrayal, with the worst of human behaviour on display. So it is with Domina, the second part of the Judith Rashleigh trilogy by LS Hilton, and Paula Hawkins’ new thriller Into the Water.
They are also invariably part of the not-so-new trend of the making and unmaking of women — which reached its apogee in Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train. Young woman, on the run from SOMETHING BAD IN HER PAST, undergoes makeover, encounters murder/commits murder, finally triumphs with just seconds to spare in true ready-to-adapt-for-cinema fashion.
In Domina, we see Rashleigh again, having created a new identity for herself, Elizabeth Teerlinc, forgotten her embarrassing Council flat past, erased her street accent, and made enough money to dress well in classic Missonis and Miu Mius. She is also, as we know from Maestra, the first part of the trilogy, on the run from the police and people from her past life. This time she gets involved in the world of a Russian billionaire Pavel Yermolov who may or may not know about her past. Like the invented cool girl in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, she is a self creation, a made-over masterpiece, an invention of the imagination, aided with copious buying of the right luxury brands, and vast amounts of sex. The thriller takes the reader from Venice to Ibiza to Serbia to Paris, with enough orgasms in between.
In both Domina and Into the Water, the first murder is always of the little girl the young woman once was. Rashleigh’s mother was an alcoholic who may or may not have murdered her young daughter (Judith’s baby sister) and it’s a trauma that leaves a deep mark on Judith’s psyche.
In Into the Water, Julia (Jules) Abbott was the fat kid with the cool older sister Nel who left the small town never to return — until Nel’s death, of course. Jules is now a fraction of her earlier body weight and has a lot more self confidence, though it threatens to shatter every time she has to recover memories of her past.
We all have things in our past we want to forget, things our parents did, things we did to our parents. Jules managed to escape it all by leaving town but Nel was drawn to it, especially to the stream in the town which has served as a watery grave for troublesome women. Nel, a photographer and writer, becomes obsessed about the history of his suicide spot, and spends an inordinate amount of time researching recent deaths.
There’s also the murder/suicide of a 15-year-old girl who was her teenage daughter’s best friend and had everything going for her. The guilt of those left behind, especially the inconsolable mother; the daughter who knows more than she is letting on; and the sister who had not forgiven her; is all too real. As are the secrets and lies that comprise a teenager’s life.
Think of it as Broadchurch without DS Miller and DI Hardy, and enjoy.