"Cicatrice" by Jo Boyle

This is an exceptionally well written thriller in which the villain, Amir, pursues Mel aka Vika aka Malavika Lal, an Australian born in India from a Hindu family, seeking to discover the whereabouts of her brother so he can have vengeance for the murder of his family in the aftermath of the riotous destruction of a mosque. The first half of the book is set in Melbourne as Mel, traumatised after having been held captive by Amir, renews the friendship of Jamie (who is in a lesbian partnership with Suzanne) after a five year interlude. This half is mostly about trust, betrayals and perceived betrayals, and will-she-won't-she as their relationship develops. The second half is more straight thriller.

Regular followers of this blog will know that this is really not the sort of book I read but I was mightily impressed. I know nothing about fighting but the 'blow-by-blow' meticulous descriptions of fights were wonderfully energetic and really well written. I know even less about girl-on-girl sex but these moments were also excellently described. In this sort of escapist literature it is difficult (at least for me) to suspend disbelief but the grounding of the characters at the start of the book in relatively normal settings and the beautiful descriptions (as mentioned) and the great dialogue all added to the verisimilitude. Even though the time-shifting in the first part of the book was slightly disruptive of the narrative, I really appreciated the PTSD flashbacks: they seemed very real to me and made the character of Mel significantly more three-dimensional than she might otherwise have been.

There were times when I thought the book was a little bit too long. There were perhaps too many tiffs between Mel and Jamie in the first part, and right at the end there was too much concern to tie up every loose end. But fundamentally this is a superbly written book and fans of this genre should thoroughly enjoy it.

Selected quotes:

• "The gleaming sun had brought the strollers out in force: the loping adult kind and the rolling baby kind." (Ch 2)
• "one of the misgivings of the technological age, is that chance and happenstance have been rendered virtually impotent by a world… so thoroughly and intimately connected." (Ch 4)
• "The commanding tenor that sounded in her brain, emitted as barely a whisper in the execution" (Ch 10)
• "if past was prelude, she knew exactly where she was going." (Ch 11)
• "Alex had an ephimany then. An epitome. Fuck, he had a moment of clarity." (Ch 11)
• “Hey, people think the most alluring thing about being a paramedic is the blood and guts. And don’t get me wrong, blood-and-guts is a rollicking good time" (Ch 16) I loved paramedic Annie. What a wonderful cameo role.
• “Crack addiction. But he’s just an alcoholic now. Progress, right?” (Ch 16)
• "He squirmed like sperm in a petri dish" (Ch 23)
• "scuttling him like a high-rise at a demolition." (Ch 28)
• “Heroes aren’t afraid of coffee shops." (Ch 30)
• "the most reckless thing I’ve seen you do under the influence is mix vodka with Nesquik.” (Ch 30)

March 2023

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God