Claire McGowan - The Lost

Rating: 3/5

Review:
A decent book marred by cliché

There are a lot of good things about Claire McGowan's second novel, but I think it has some serious flaws, too.

McGowan is a good writer of generally straightforward, easy-flowing prose. The story is based on a very decent idea based around the search for two missing teenagers in Northern Ireland and she creates an excellent sense of place. The Northern Irish setting is where she grew up and it shows in her fine evocation of the physical landscape and townscapes, the depiction of the attitudes of the society and her ear for the local speech.

The characters are quite well depicted, but it is here that I begin to have my problems with this book, because they tend to be stereotypes from Police Procedural Central Casting. I say police procedural, but of course the central character, forensic psychologist Paula Maguire, is a feisty individualist who consistently breaks all rules of procedure, has unprofessionally inappropriate relationships with people involved in the investigation...and so on. She isn't a police officer but constantly indulges in police work by interviewing suspects, turning up on raids, following leads on her own...and so on. She, naturally, has reasons why This Is Personal. And surely there must be a police unit somewhere in the world which isn't threatened by powerful local interests, which doesn't have a bigoted and hostile sergeant and a boss who forbids Our Heroine to follow up important leads...and so on.

Add to this the plot absurdities and clichés and I really did begin to get provoked. I won't give a list (it would be long), but I offer this quote in evidence: "She'd told Guy she'd be following up some leads. Dropped hints that she'd have to switch her phone off, interview policy, etc, so don't ring. She tried not to remind herself that this was what had gotten her into trouble in London, going off on her own. But it could be nothing - she'd tell him if she found something. It would be OK." I hate spoilers so I won't tell you whether it was OK or not and I'm certain you can't guess.

Plenty of other people do silly things for implausible reasons, too. Oh, and naturally Paula (not a police officer, remember) has a Climactic Confrontation With A Suspect In Which She Is At Mortal Risk While The Suspect Explains Everything. Twice. On Halloween for a convenient Colourful Backdrop.

I'm sorry to be so grumpy about it. It's just that Claire McGowan is a decent writer and there is a good book here which she devalues with all this stale, overblown stuff. Writers like Tana French and Susan Hill have shown that a thriller can be brilliant without it, and I think that writers with serious aspirations need to leave the clichés behind and just write something at least half-way believable. Could Do Better.