Sharp Glass by Sarah Hilary
I would like to thank Macmillan for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher - Macmillan
Published - Out now
Price - £18.99 hardback 99p kindle ebook
The last thing she remembers is standing outside the empty house. One she was employed to pack, ready for removal. Her job is her life. It is her compulsion to take care of an owner’s precious possessions, to do whatever it takes to help them move on. Now she is cold, dirty, damp, trapped in its cellar with no chance of escape, miles from anywhere. His prisoner.
And then he returns.
Her captor believes she holds the answers to why a young girl was murdered a year ago. He refuses to let her go until she reveals her secrets. But he doesn’t know she has hidden depths, and an anger she works hard to control.
The battle lines are drawn. They are the only two people who can solve the mystery of the dead girl. But when the truth is revealed, whose life will shatter?
The phrase two hander tends to be used for films or plays that a central duo carrying the story. Storytelling that can be as simple as A meets B but allows the characters to bounce off, argue, join and examine each other in detail. The intimacy of us as the sole observer brings us as close to a story as we can be. We are the silent judges of what is the truth of any situation. In Sarah Hilary’s ambitious thriller Sharp Glass we get two fascinating characters joined in the most unexpected ways having to each navigate around the other.
Gwen is a professional packer for those who move house or need it memories. She takes pride in her work that matches her own desire for order and putting things into boxes. But arriving at remote country house she is struck unconscious and awakes locked in a basement. Her captor is silent but clearly means Gwen harm. Secrets on all sides are about to finally be released.
I was impressed by the idea and concept behind this tale. Initially we read the scene as a woman in danger (and indeed she is) but then Hilary starts to unsettle things. We are told the tale first by Gwen and later by her captor and while Gwen is understandably panicked she is more in control than you’d expect and her attitude is more unorthodox - later on she is described as made of knives and that’s a great description. Dan who we find out is her captor is a much more hesitant and mixed up man than you’d expect and is in too deep. Why both are hiding things from each other and what’s the connection between then is slowly explored in alternating chapters and the story is opened out into the recent path.
The tone of the tale is ambiguous - we don’t know who we can trust both fall into a category of unreliable narrators and yet these two seem to compliment each other. In a dark tale of grief, child death and violence we have two people pushed very far out to do horrible things. Both love control and in their chapters each gives themselves lists of facts they find. They’ve both got a sense to need to control their lives and possibly their inner natures. It makes them unpredictable and also hard to talk about without spilling you but the reveals of who these people really are are satisfying but you do feel for the first quest yet as if a few more confirmed facets would help the pacing but then things soon settle down.
Sharp Glass is a very interesting psychological thriller exploring how we all can be pushed to extreme as if our triggers get pushed. Very interesting characters and situation made this a recommended read.
