What is red and goes tick-tock?
An apple, the tick-tock was to confuse you.
This is the silly riddle that personifies most murder mysteries. But usually the tick-tock is obvious. It often gets boring after a while and occasionally gets downright annoying, like a child insisting on sticking to their poorly woven lies despite it being clear to everyone that their web has lost all credibility.
There is nothing of this sort here. In this book, the investigation feels authentic. The sense that there is a behind the scenes manipulation of the information is absent. Maybe it is down to the first person narrative, which I usually prefer in a book. There is a certain rhythm and honesty when the story is being told from a single perspective. Of course there are unreliable narrators, still an honesty of perspective and what one knows and doesn’t know remains. In short, you get a more authentic tale than one which is clouded by many angles.
Plus, I liked the voice and character of Detective Ryan. I don’t mean that he is likeable, rather that he felt real, unlike a lot of detectives in crime fiction. He is flawed but not in any obvious way. He talks about his deepest, darkest problems and feelings with a flippancy that makes the mountain seem like a molehill. I am unsure whether to feel sorry for him or slap him. It is this complexity that makes him jump off the page and walk in the world.
An ambience of horror, fear and thrill is created by the poetic, sinuous and beautiful writing that makes this book a joy to read. The words, almost imperceptibly and gradually, bring alive the woods of Knocknaree, the characters, the horror of murder and lend the book a chilling atmosphere so tense, that my heartbeat went haywire from one page to the next.
The last quarter of the book is filled with so many twisty, tension filled moments, it is almost unbearable but absolutely thrilling. This is one of best crime thrillers that I have read in a long time.
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