You have to take care, dealing with broken things, sometimes they give way, and break others in their turn.
The Last House on Needless Street
by Catriona Ward
Genre: Mystery
About: When a little girl goes missing down by the lake one summer, the police search all over and finally turn up a likely suspect. Ted Bannerman fits the profile, only he has an alibi. Eleven years later, the girl's sister refuses to let go. After all, alibis can be faked and she's sure there's something very wrong with this man who lives not quite alone on the last house on Needless Street.
The Good
The writing is really fantastic. Each POV is so distinct and all come with their own mysteries. Trying to piece together fact from fiction and fill in those blanks characters come with was a lot of fun; I was engaged and interested in each of the storylines. Ted's story in particular is really well done. There are hints and clues throughout - I did actually guess the twist but there are so many red herrings that I doubted myself many times over. The way it all comes together feels satisfying and gives real meaning to the story that I imagine will stick with me for some time.
The Bad
I didn't like Dee's storyline. The twist of her involvement with Lulu's disappearance feels unnecessary, and when you read the author's Afterward it becomes clear that Dee's purpose in the story fits a previous vision of what the book was about. One that becomes redundant in this version. I'm sure Lulu's disappearance was the focus of previous drafts, but in this story the solution to the mystery is not as important to the ending as I think it should have been. Lauren is not Lulu and it's a bit of a stretch to see why Lauren had to pretend she was Lulu to Olivia. It feels convoluted in the same way Dee's two different versions of what happened the day Lulu disappeared feels convoluted. Ted's narrative is unreliable but in a way where the reader can still piece together the truth, whereas Dee is flat out lying to the reader. The first version of events is told as a deep rooted memory, one that gets us to sympathise with her character and understand her as a person. But it isn't real and this doesn't feel like a clever trick of writing, it feels like a cheat for an extra little twist.
The Somewhat Iffy
Ted's recovery is nice to see but adding in a romance at the end felt a little strange to me. The park ranger is described several times in the narrative but always in tiny throwaway lines that never give you a sense that Ted is interested in this person. Given how significant this character is at the end of the novel, I would have liked to have seen some interaction leading up to this. Something like what we get with the Chihuahua Lady - she's a constant presence in the novel and so it makes sense and is interesting to see how she's included in the ending. The park ranger just comes across as random.
Overall
A twisty, complex novel that kept me guessing until the end. I really enjoyed the character developments and what this novel has to say about trauma.
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