Sophie Hannah - A Room Swept White

Review by Malcolm Martland on show 8th July
Sophie Hannah is an English poet and novelist. Her first detective novel, Little Face, was published in 2006. Her novels were recommended to me by my son, Guy, who met her while at university and occasionally advises her on aspects of human pathology.

A Room Swept White centres around the lives of three mothers apparently wrongly accused of murdering their infants while they insist that they were cot deaths. Crucial evidence for their guilt was provided by a controversial paediatrician Dr Judith Duffy. One by one the convictions are overturned primarily through the interventions of an investigative TV documentary producer, Laurie Nattrass, who at the beginning of the novel hands over the project to Fliss Benson, who in turn is infatuated with Laurie. She receives anonymously a card bearing a grid of numbers like a game of sudoku. Laurie also receives an identical card. Then one of the mothers is murdered in her own home and a card of identical numbers is found on the body. Clearly the murderer is showering everybody with clues. With the police increasingly involved, Fliss embarks on her own investigation sometimes much to their annoyance.

Initially I found the writing witty intelligent and humorous but alas as the plot grew increasingly complex the fun disappeared, the plot grew over complicated, all the characters appeared to be dysfunctional and the only key witness seemed to be a four-year-old obsessed with horse racing who reported seeing a man with an umbrella on a day when it was not raining.

I need to go back to her first novel and start again, but this novel while showing promise at the beginning became lacklustre in my opinion and by the end I was wondering what on earth it was all about.

Malcolm Martland

RadioScilly Book Club