A review by secre
Cold Bath Lane by Lorna Dounaeva
2.0
Cold Bath Lane is more of a prequel to the two prior books than the third book in the series and is essentially the story of why Jody and her younger sister end up being such terrible people. It's a dark and fairly miserable story, and frankly didn't actually interest me all that much. So instead of completing the already running narrative arc, you end up with a fairly bloated novel that should have been a novella prologue at half the length.
And whilst parts of it were believable; largely the abuse and suffering Jody undergoes at the hands of her father, other aspects really, really weren't. Things might have been significantly more lax in the eighties, but I struggle to believe a young teenager could simply stop going to school after the birth of her baby sister and nobody pay the blindest bit of notice. Likewise, evidence collecting wasn't quite as high tech, but considering the father is a raging alcoholic and running a side-lined business setting fires (with business cards no less!), it beggars belief that he wouldn't be caught.
This would have been a far better read at half the length, with a significant amount of the repetitive aspects cut out in honesty. Because whilst it is undoubtedly grim and depressing, it's narrative is meandering and uneven. There is very little tension; nothing particularly unexpected happens. It's just the story of three children growing up in a home that is woefully neglectful, abusive and under the thrall of a violent alcoholic with a penchant for setting fires.
And whilst parts of it were believable; largely the abuse and suffering Jody undergoes at the hands of her father, other aspects really, really weren't. Things might have been significantly more lax in the eighties, but I struggle to believe a young teenager could simply stop going to school after the birth of her baby sister and nobody pay the blindest bit of notice. Likewise, evidence collecting wasn't quite as high tech, but considering the father is a raging alcoholic and running a side-lined business setting fires (with business cards no less!), it beggars belief that he wouldn't be caught.
This would have been a far better read at half the length, with a significant amount of the repetitive aspects cut out in honesty. Because whilst it is undoubtedly grim and depressing, it's narrative is meandering and uneven. There is very little tension; nothing particularly unexpected happens. It's just the story of three children growing up in a home that is woefully neglectful, abusive and under the thrall of a violent alcoholic with a penchant for setting fires.