October 28, 2013
Dugdall’s second novel featuring U.K. probation officer Cate Austin (after 2010’s The Woman Before Me) explores issues of responsibility and repentance in a tale of broken childhood and choice in dying. The facts of the case are clear: academic Alice Mariani admits to having assisted David Jenkins’s suicide. Although evidence supports Alice’s claim that David died of his own will, assisted suicide is still illegal in Britain and she must answer for her act. Delving into the suspect’s troubled past, Austin tries to determine if the woman across the table from her is the vulnerable, mentally ill person she appears, or if madness is merely a mask concealing a psychopathic manipulator. A former probation officer herself, Dugdall gives the straightforward plot line depth and texture through the inclusion of different characters’ viewpoints, while carefully timed revelations add the tension. Austin proves less a protagonist than a featured supporting character, but the result is still a fascinating psychological thriller.
November 15, 2013
Dugdall continues to explore the intersection of damaged people and the British legal system in her latest thriller. When a man named Smith meets a woman named Robin, the two conspire to end his life. Smith is fully on board; he even advertises for a beautiful woman to help him commit suicide. That leads him to Alice Mariani, who chooses the pseudonym "Robin" in her dealings with Smith. After Smith manages to commit the deed with Alice's help, she steps forward and takes credit, not only for helping him kill himself, but also for one final defiant act: She has eaten Smith's penis. Alice says it was what Smith wanted and that he desired that his flesh live on in hers, but probation officer Cate Austin--Dugdall's stock go-to character--doesn't fully believe the story Alice is telling. Austin must recommend to the court whether or not Alice should serve an active prison sentence or commitment to a mental hospital, but it becomes clear once Austin starts examining Alice's past life and talent for the dramatic that the beautiful college lecturer is more interested in avoiding a punishment she doesn't feel she deserves than real justice. In addition to the book's research flaws, Dugdall's characters fail to ring true. Alice, in particular, is entirely without redeeming characteristics, making it difficult for readers to empathize with her. Dugdall also piles on so many shocking revelations that instead of raising the interest of readers, all of the depravity weighs down the rather thin plot and sinks it. The author compounds the tale's problems by again opting for an odd structure that switches back and forth between points of view and tenses. Ultimately, what's left is a convoluted story about a woman whose fate, while interesting, is not very compelling. Dugdall's fans may find this effort pleasing, but the author's choices will turn off some potential readers.
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