The Dark Room

I read this when it was first published in 1995 and enjoyed it so much I kept it on my book shelf. One of our recent reading themes at Oundle Crime (because our library has been closed after a fire) was to re-read a book we'd loved, so I chose this. And all these years later I loved it all over again! It's a dark, dense, claustrophobic and convoluted psychological thriller, which starts with the discovery of two decomposing bodies in a wood. A bit later the reader meets Jinx, a young photographer who, jilted by her fiancé for her best friend, is in a private clinic recovering from an alleged suicide attempt. She’s suffering from memory loss and has a paralysing fear of something she doesn’t want to remember. When the police realise the bodies in the wood are those of the fiancé and Jinx’s best friend, they naturally suspect Jinx of being involved, and her situation isn’t helped by the fact that her father is a notorious ex-East End gangster. Minette Walters writes really well and this has a shocking and unexpected ending. Reading it again was very satisfying and reminded me why I'd kept it on my shelf for so many years!
Review by Freyja, Oundle Crime