Member Review

"Not every danger can be contained"

Yorkshire, 1983. Margaret Thatcher is at Number 10, Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' is on the radio and Salford based single mum Lorraine Quick, with her leave having been summarily cancelled, is having to put plans to tour with her band on hold due to work. With her expertise in psychometric testing, Lorraine is being sent by a government minister, to the desolate Yorkshire moors, where she is expected to build a PR-friendly team out of the ragtag staff at the infamous Windwell Asylum For The Criminally Insane, as it transitions into a modern, top-security unit, housing some of the most dangerous criminals in the country.

Lorraine is offered accommodation in the local village, but she barely has time to unpack and make arrangements to meet and greet the small, four person asylum management team, before she and Medical Director Jan Voss, stumble upon the brutal murder of one of the other directors, Administration Director Kevin Crossley, which has taken place on the premises, despite the fifteen-foot-high perimeter wall and heavy-duty locks. The asylum is in the throes of transitioning from being a state run institution, to becoming a fully privatised business; however the inherent problems of drugs, psychopathic violence and staff who are uncaring at best and complicit in various crimes including misappropriation of funds on a regular basis, have not changed despite the new surroundings.

It appears that circumstances of the current murder, mirror those surrounding the death three years previously of Junior Campbell, one of the institution's more vulnerable inmates and as this complicated mix of relationships and rivalries unfolds, the similarities become even more frighteningly obvious, putting lives, including that of Lorraine herself, in danger.

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I always enjoy reading books where an author has played completely to their strengths when forming the plotline of a story/series. Martine Bailey's experience within NHS personnel departments and her expertise in processing and analysing psychometric testing, really shines through, to provide the basis of this dark, dour, depressing, oppressive and wonderfully twisted thriller, which was broken down into well marked and headlined chapters, which made reading it so easy on the eye, if not on the mind, which it messed with totally!

Although a brand new publication, the book immediately took me back to the 1980s, which is where I needed to focus my mindset. Police profiling of victims and suspects was in its infancy. Pub food was generally a mass manufactured meat pie of indeterminate age, kept warm in a heated cabinet on the bar. A boxed 'Vesta' curry was a special home date-night treat and a battery operated 'Sony Walkman' which played cassettes, qualified as a personal entertainment system. It also seemed surreal that so many members of a community worked in the same institution, even from within the same family, all a bit incestuous, although I guess that the concept of people commuting many miles from home to work was still for early stage adopters, with multiple car households very much in the minority.

Some things however, no matter the passage of time, still remain as relevant now as they did then. The problems of illegal drugs (and these days mobile phones too) being smuggled into prison; the barely concealed unscrupulous behaviour of some prison officers; senior management who have little or no control over what happens in the establishment on a daily basis and who often care even less; and certain privileged inmates who are free to victimise and terrorise the masses.

I am hoping that my reaction to the many characters who occupied such a small physical space, was exactly as the author intended, as even though individually they were well defined and described, I found it almost impossible to relate to, connect with, or even begin to like, any of them, with the possible exception of Ella, who had definitely been dealt a difficult hand in life. Everyone was a victim of circumstance and fate, including Quick and Diaz themselves, who I believe solved the case more by good luck than sound judgement, as each was busy trying to juggle their rather messy and dysfunctional personal lives, alongside their respective professional duties.

A unique and interesting setting for a storyline and locations which, whilst based on real places, mixed half true names with some fictional. However the bleak and isolated nature of the area as described, is all too real, depending on the prevailing weather conditions, so on this occasion I was more than happy with my 'armchair traveller' status, reading from the comfort of my armchair in my cosy heated room.

This is book #2 in the 'Lorraine Quick' series and whilst the most pertinent points of the backstory were seamlessly woven into the fabric of the storyline, in hindsight, I believe I might have benefitted from starting with the first book, just to have got more insight into the previous history between Quick and Diaz, which seemed a bit haphazard to say the least. At one particular point, I began to think that they were both more interested in each others problems, rather than being in any rush to solve the case. I'm still not sure that the end of this book brought their future relationship to any final conclusions and I wouldn't be surprised to see them back together again soon!