Book Review: "In Her Shadow" by Mark Edwards

Yet again, I'm on my paperback thriller reading rage and Mark Edwards, if you haven't noticed, is an author that keeps popping up because his books are so addictive. I read this book in just one sitting and it was simply so good that I have promised myself that I'm not going to complain about the amount of characters being a bit on the large side. I mean, it was and it did annoy me from time to time, but the main storyline concerning Jessica and her child which is Mark Edwards doing what he does best: making something out of the possibility of the supernatural. The threat of the supernatural appears so often in his books and it's always so much fun because that is something that makes his thrillers stand out. It is a unique change within the genre.

Jessica is always revisiting the day her sister died five years' ago. She remembers the pain. She remembers having to explain to her eldest child that his aunt had gone to heaven and even her husband was trying his best to be supportive at the time. She left behind a devastated husband whose mother-in-law is convinced killed her and a family that seems to be broken beyond repair. The youngest child, Olivia, does remember her aunt as the little one was born after she died but she seems to know things. She knows things about her aunt she could not possibly know from songs she liked to facts about her life. Then she starts saying that she can see her dead aunt and talk to her. There's secrets the child isn't revealing but it's scaring her mother who is trying to rationalise the situation. This child, who is 'obsessed with death' is also having premonitions, offering people to 'get well soon' when they haven't got sick yet (and then they do) and telling others who will be the next to die (and then the person dies). Apparently, fire is scary and dangerous - then her mother's old high school goes up in flames.

Mark Edwards' focus on the supernatural aspect of the story was possibly my favourite thing about the book. My next favourite thing was the possibility of murder. The question of who killed the sister is opened upon a revisiting to an old ghost named Larry - one the two sisters could see when they were children. One that ended up in the newspapers in an Enfield Haunting way. (It's funny how it reminded me of the Enfield Haunting and perhaps, it will remind you of that too). On top of this, we have a very superstitious mother who is constantly trying to get Jessica to see that her daughter is acting strangely because of a possession. Jessica isn't buying it...at first. There's something more going on and when Jessica's car is being followed, she's starting to break down. Her daughter lashes out, bites and scares other children at school - Jessica uses a seance version of Scrabble to try to pry information out of her daughter.

The writing is brilliantly tense and has an air of horror to it. I love the way he intertwines these details in with the grown-up drama which involves drugs and modelling and business, amongst other things like the past and the childhood of the two girls, looking at how their father left and the relationships they eventually had with their husbands. Mark Edwards' writing never feels like an information dump though - everything is woven together in a horrifying way in which every layer that gets removed is a new addition to the larger puzzle. I'm not saying you'll be shocked, but I am saying you won't guess exactly what's going on because it is much bigger than you think. But then again, don't expect everything to be tied up in a neat little bow.

All in all, this was a brilliant read. Mark Edwards' books are something of a treat now and because I'm reading so many of them, I feel myself becoming more used to his style of having a large cast of characters even though on many occasions that isn't for me. I think this book was genuinely brilliant. I cannot fault it. I am even willing to look over things I don't normally enjoy because they are still done so damn well.

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