Deborah O’Connor’s “The Dangerous Kind” was probably my read of the year in 2019 and after such a tremendous book, I wasn’t sure her latest novel “The Captive” could meet my high expectations.
I need not have had any concerns, for as soon as I started reading, I was engrossed, engaged and invested in it and found it an impossible book to put down. Highly original and set in the near future, restorative justice has taken over the normal prison service. Prisoners are kept and attended to, by the families or victims of the perpetrator, in a custom built cell within their houses. The idea being that the prisoner truly understands the damage they have inflicted on the victim or on the families left behind. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
When Hannah temporarily ‘houses’ Jem, the man accused and found guilty of her detective husband’s murder, she’s nervous of him being in the cell in her kitchen. “What if he speaks to me?”. “What if he hurts me?”. “What if he gets out?” Everyday the same thoughts run through her head. But what happens when she starts to suspect he could have been wrongly sentenced and he didn’t kill her husband?
Brilliantly played out and executed, this exciting, high-concept story was imaginative and constructed with a superb plot that keeps you turning the pages in anticipation of what will happen next. I liked Hannah and Jem, I was thoroughly invested in their stories and I thought the fact she suffered with Type One Diabetes, which played a big part in the intense story, was a realistic addition to her character.
Although far fetched at times and probably an unfeasible solution to prison costs and overcrowding, if you’re invested in part of the story you may as well believe in it all and it is for this reason I give “The Captive” five stars - for the sheer entertainment factor and engrossing storyline. #UnlockTheTruth
5 stars
I need not have had any concerns, for as soon as I started reading, I was engrossed, engaged and invested in it and found it an impossible book to put down. Highly original and set in the near future, restorative justice has taken over the normal prison service. Prisoners are kept and attended to, by the families or victims of the perpetrator, in a custom built cell within their houses. The idea being that the prisoner truly understands the damage they have inflicted on the victim or on the families left behind. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
When Hannah temporarily ‘houses’ Jem, the man accused and found guilty of her detective husband’s murder, she’s nervous of him being in the cell in her kitchen. “What if he speaks to me?”. “What if he hurts me?”. “What if he gets out?” Everyday the same thoughts run through her head. But what happens when she starts to suspect he could have been wrongly sentenced and he didn’t kill her husband?
Brilliantly played out and executed, this exciting, high-concept story was imaginative and constructed with a superb plot that keeps you turning the pages in anticipation of what will happen next. I liked Hannah and Jem, I was thoroughly invested in their stories and I thought the fact she suffered with Type One Diabetes, which played a big part in the intense story, was a realistic addition to her character.
Although far fetched at times and probably an unfeasible solution to prison costs and overcrowding, if you’re invested in part of the story you may as well believe in it all and it is for this reason I give “The Captive” five stars - for the sheer entertainment factor and engrossing storyline. #UnlockTheTruth
5 stars