About the book:
(Blurb from Jonathan Ball Publishers)
WHEN DANGER LIES IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU REJECT ITS PULL?
Cora carries secrets her daughter can’t know.
Freya is frightened by what her mother leaves unsaid.
Angel will only bury the past if it means putting her abusers into the ground.
One act of violence sets three women on a collision course, each desperate to find the truth – but the people they love are not what they seem.
My Thoughts:
With the author’s background as investigative journalist, she has got the authority and insight to address complex and uncomfortable topics. Be sure to check trigger warnings. This of course implies that this is not an easy read. This is a dark, psychologically intense novel about what we see, perceptions and specifically referring to the “male gaze”. This is powerfully visualised and portrayed by Cora, the protagonists, use and love for the visual art.
It starts out with Cora, fleeing the safety and warmth of a cabin in the woods, during a snowstorm. Right from the start, we start to feel the tension and are prompted to ask the question – what is she fleeing from? Or even more intriguing – what has she done? It is a real page-turner, and every chapter felt like a new puzzle piece falling in place.
A few favourite quotes:
“My mother…would sit for hours flicking through magazines, looking at photographs of smiling women with immaculate hair. She dreamed of a world without dust, a world of shining kitchens and canapé recipes, a world that wasn’t the farm. I sat at her feet waiting for her.”
“Freya sensed her mother’s damage in the fluid worlds she painted, where beauty and cruelty were hard to distinguish.”
“Those of us who survive live on as dark stars,’ murmured Cora, ‘We are invisible, but we collapse the light.”
“Art – making things – is a way to look at horror and survive. That’s what artists do. We make things that can be viewed, when looking at the original would turn us into stone.”
“Hotel rooms, she’d tweeted into the insomniac internet, make everybody feel welcome and no one feel at home.”
What I enjoyed:
• Scandic Noir feels
• Female-driven
• Flawed characters
• Reprisal
• Mother-and-daughter relationships
I am keen to check out Margie’s “Clare Hart” series, which was recently republished by Jonathan Ball Publishers. Have you read it yet?
I had the opportunity to read “In The Eye of the Beholder” as part of a readalong hosted by Jonathan Ball Publishers. Thank you JBP – and all the fabulous South African bookstagrammers who joined as well!
RRR (Roelia Reads Rating) 4/5
The details:
Category: Crime Fiction
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
On sale: August 2022
Format: Paperback
About the Author:
https://twitter.com/MargieOrford/
https://instagram.com/margietheorford
https://www.tiktok.com/@roelia_reads/video/7163703337597013253?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7112798763933222405
