Greenwich Park
Greenwich Park
By: Katherine Faulkner
If I had just one word to describe this book it would be ‘dubious.’
There is much doubt and suspicion throughout the whole book. We must decide what and who is trustworthy and what/who is unreliable and misleading. Who has the secrets and who is connected to who?
The concept of a spacey pregnant woman with questionable or unreliable memory is nothing new— reminiscent of Woman on the Edge (which I liked better) and The Breakdown (which I liked about the same)—but Faulkner still crafts a gripping mystery.
[I’ll insert a warning here that this book discusses infant loss (handled pretty well in my opinion) and rape if those are triggers for you.]
It begins with a glimpse into the future with a letter from someone in prison addressed to our main character, Helen. “What did you do that day, after I was convicted?…I think of you often… You need to know the truth, even if after all this time your hands are still clamped over your ears.”
Then we are taken back in time to discover who is in prison and why. We must discover the truth Helen never knew.
Jumping into the present we read of Helen meeting Rachel at a pregnancy class. This first half of the book was a little distressing for me to read because of how reckless and erratic Rachel’s character is. We know something is off and we are forced to suffer through Rachel’s highly dysfunctional behavior while Helen gets herself wrapped all up in it.
I mean, I wasn’t a Helen-stickler on pregnancy do’s and don’ts, but Rachel wasn’t just sporadically ‘cheating’ and eating deli meat and drinking caffeine every day— she was smoking and a borderline alcoholic and no one felt like they could question that. Her general recklessness and forceful, overbearing demeanor just stressed me out!
Rachel’s friendship quickly transforms into a problem. Helen starts to realize Rachel might not be who she says she is and is somehow connected to one or more of her family members. She must confront them and things of their past to find out the truth. Yet, she is in more danger than she realizes. Can she get to the bottom of it without putting herself or her baby at risk?
Told through several different POVs we are gradually given more clues and information. The chapters from Serena, Helen’s sister-in-law, give us insight to Helen and her brother, Rory. The chapters from Katie give us insight into Charlie, her boyfriend (Helen’s other brother), and the unraveling of a historic and geographically significant rape case. The other POVs are anonymous and mysterious.
Two things annoyed me with this book. First, the f-words (54 f-words, 3 s-words). Second, the chapter cliffhangers. I understand that a chapter cliffhanger adds to the suspense, but it was very overdone with this book. We would be left with the phrase- “I need to tell you something” or “I need to know the truth about you and ___.” Then boom, chapter ends. And the next one would begin a day or more in the future, sometimes with completely different characters and you’re like ‘what the heck?’
It’s like when you call someone on the phone to ask for directions and they say, ‘Turn at the-’ and then the line cuts out. And they keep repeating themself but it keeps cutting out at the most important moments. You need the information but you kinda want to hang up because why does this keep happening???
That’s how I felt reading this book. It was, at times, too much of a tease. We were saddled with a lot of disjointed clues and suggestions. They come together in the end, but there is no real flow from clue to clue or information to suspect, etc. I found that to be a downside, but maybe that is the kind of suspense and confusion you like.
Another downside was Helen. She’s our main character but I didn’t find her very likeable. She seemed so needy and childish. I mean she is a grown woman and still refers to her parents as Mummy and Daddy. This type of character was similar to the aforementioned books. I get she has had a lot of grief and instability wrapped around all of the babies she and her husband, Daniel, lost, but it would have been nice to see her with more strength and resolve, more of a backbone who can be smart and bold, who can speak hard truths and say no. But she’s very wispy and insecure.
This was a debut novel for Katherine Faulkner so I think it was a decent first book. Because of the language, I’m not sure if I’ll read another of hers. Some of it was bizarre and frustrating but the mystery and suspense is there so I give her props for that. Depending what you like, it might be enough to overshadow the downsides.
Sidenote 1: Having stayed in London near Hyde Park it was interesting to see a different part of London through this book and made me want to visit and do a little more research on this real place of Greenwich Park. I wasn’t sure if some of the history talked about in the book was real or not.
Sidenote 2: This might be the first British book I read that used the word ‘takeout’ instead of ‘takeaway’ and ‘line’ instead of ‘queue.’ I looked her up to make sure Faulkner was actually British- she is a London native with a background in investigative reporting. This makes sense, then, that the character Katie, the reporter, was probably the strongest character.
**Received an ARC via NetGalley **
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