This
novel starts off with a left hook and a jab, as social worker Jo Elliot is
attacked by a mugger. As she wakes up in hospital, the details of the
attack are a little hazy, no doubt due to the head wound. She is not best
pleased to see that her ex-boyfriend, Alex, has been called, but is silently
thankful that he still has the keys to her house when he drives her home from
hospital. Despite the break up of their relationship, Jo still regards
Alex as her best friend and is relieved that she is able to call upon him
whenever she feels scared. When the police ask Jo whether she was
attacked by a client, she answers in the negative, so the police assure
her that it was probably just a random mugging. Jo goes along with this
as she is still unsure of what happened. She hasn't lost her memory, it's
just that her perspective of the attack has changed completely from when it was
actually happening. But it does become clear that there was more to the
attack than mere robbery...
It's not just Jo who appears to have a short memory. Due to the sheer
volume of her backlog, and the stress that her office is coming under from the
Chantelle Wade Inquiry (following the death of a child in their care), Jo
determines to get back into the swing of things as quickly as possible, and
refuses all offers of extra help. Invited to celebrate Alex's birthday,
Jo takes the opportunity to let her hair down. Unfortunately, Alex's new
beau, Louise is there, and Jo takes an instant dislike to her. Then there
is the relation from her work colleague Colin Fuller that one of her former
clients has escaped from a young offenders insitution. Jo hasn't
seen the boy since he was in his early teens, but she has a growing conviction
that it was he who attacked her. Haunted by the face of the youth who
assaulted her, she begins to see it everywhere. She even thinks that he
has been tormenting one of her clients, Katie Adams. Yet Jo is nothing if
not the consummate professional. True, she may have ignored her boss's
advice to wean Katie Adams away from her, due to Katie's overwhelming
dependency on previous social workers, yet Jo maintains that she knows exactly
how to handle her and that there is still a cause for concern for her and
her children. Katie believes that the cause of all her problems is
a neighbouring adolescent boy called Danny Metcalfe. Jo is
dismissive of this, and besides, Colin is the Metcalfe's social worker, and she
mustn't put her nose into their affairs, especially since she has had an
antagonistic relationship with the boy's mother, Carla Metcalfe. Even if
she does think that it was Sean Metcalfe, Danny's older brother, who attacked
her. Jo can't think of anything that she had done eight years earlier that
could possibly have provoked Sean after all this time, so still believes the
attack was random. Maybe he was high on drugs when he did it?
Jo's life doesn't get much easier as her physical scars heal. Her dislike
of Louise is so evident that everyone can see it, and Alex is understandably
none too pleased. When things get too much for her, she can still escape
into booze and fags, both nictotine and 'herbal'. Even when it's not
such a great idea to call on Alex if she gets scared, PC Dave Short seems
to have taken her under his wing, to the point of checking if she's
alright when he's off duty, and to sharing a bottle of her wine as he
does this. Yet he does not seem wholly sympathetic to her
plight either. Despite her impressive control following the attack, there
are inevitably times when things get to her and she becomes scared.
Like when she wakes up at hearing a sudden noise and treads on a
shard from a shattered wine glass that has been knocked over by a possible
intruder... Fearing that someone may still be out to get her, and that
she is in danger of losing it all, Jo decides to take control... She
decides to risk everything, and to ignore all the advice of her colleagues and
friends not to become too involved, and embarks on a mission to save
Danny Metcalfe from turning out like his brother. But she may have
had a bigger impact on Sean Metcalfe's life than she or anyone else has ever
realised...
With
Death Duty, Clare Littleford builds on the promise shown by her impressive
first novel, and shows that she is now truly a player. Her depiction of
the world of social work and the people within it are truly authentic.
More scary still is the clarity that she brings to the dark recesses of all of
our minds. "Nature, red in tooth and claw" seems to be Clare
Littleford's mantra when she writes the few, but distinctive scenes of
disturbing violence. Whilst this novel is more convential than Beholden,
the plot is just as strong, and the material is no less dark and compelling.
All those scientists looking for where the mysterious dark matter of the
universe is hidden, may be well advised to read Clare Littleford, as she seems
to have an never ending store of it. The good news is that there is a
third novel in the offing. The bad news as I write this, is that it has
not been published yet.
Authortrek
Rating: 10/10
Kevin
Patrick Mahoney
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