Far too much going on, increasingly improbable twists and bewildering lead characters!
Hold onto your hats as there is a heck of a lot going on and one very convoluted plot at the heart of this high octane thriller.. The Perfect Victim is the second novel to feature London Herald journalist, Sophie Kent, a complex and woefully troubled individual with enough problems of her own to fill an entire novel! Although I have yet to read the first book in the series, Breaking Dead, there is a pretty hefty information dump over the course of the first few chapters which basically provides a potted history of our protagonist, Sophie. It is however rather overwhelming to be bombarded by all of her weighty issues in one short, sharp dose without any real context and I would probably say that whilst reading the first novel isn’t necessary, it would stand potential readers in very good stead.
As the novel opens the eyes of the country are fixed on the imminent verdict of the murder trial of Eric Rowntree, a man charged with killing his wife and sons, however an increasingly delayed decision on the part of the jury leaves the media scrambling for stories to fill the empty copy. Thus when the body of a woman is washed up on the banks of the Thames and she is found to have been murdered it isn’t long before the full glare of the media spotlight turns to her violent demise. In a matter of days, Sophie’s friend and business editor at the London Herald, Charlie Swift, is named as the prime suspect, suspiciously coinciding with him disappearing and becoming uncontactable. In the face of mounting public suspicion Sophie refuses to doubt her friend and as the vultures circle she resorts to drastic measures to clear his name and piece together just what was going on in the life of the murder victim, a partner at a successful law firm.
Recently married to his second wife, wedding planner Emily, following the death from leukaemia of his cherished first wife, Charlie had finally looked to be a man getting a second chance at happiness. Emily vocally stands by her man and publishes a series of posts on her relationship blog avowing her support and giving her side of the story. As a series of increasingly left-field and frankly flabbergasting revelations play out the story is comprised of the first person narrative of Sophie as she endeavours to get to the truth and punctuated with third person snapshots of Emily’s life over the last forty-nine weeks prior to the murder and gradually counting down to the present day. However numerous curveballs do not necessarily equate to a compelling novel and despite new revelations being uncovered almost with each chapter, the drama rather smothers the basic premise of this novel as the revelations become increasingly improbable. Sophie’s faith in soon confronted by the facade of a happy marriage slipping away, posing the question of how well can a person ever know what goes on between a married couple? As Sophie puts her reputation on the line and eventually tracks back to the haphazard upbringing of Charlie with a troubled mother and repressed childhood trauma and publicly questions the innocence of Emily and her media manipulation, she is devastated by a damning video making Charlie’s hideous betrayal of her apparent. Could a killer lurk behind the veneer of bonhomie that colleague, friend and husband, Charlie Swift, displays to the world?
Tenacious Sophie Kent is an ambitious reporter with a fractious relationship with her wealthy parents and has recently discovered that her homeless and drug addicted younger brother, Tommy, was intentionally murdered as opposed to having committed suicide. Outside of her work she is committed to uncovering who took her brothers life. Alongside this she has a ‘history’ with her immediate superior News Editor, Mack Winterson, is drawn to police contact and inside source, DCI Sam Durand and undergoing therapy and reliant on sleeping pills following a close encounter with a serial killer! After an experience with the maverick journalist Jack Parlabane brought to life in the novels of Christopher Brookmyre, I found Sophie much less imaginative an investigator with her straightforward methods and although she did become a little more dynamic, I thought her senior newsroom colleague, Kate, was altogether more inspirational and sparky. The newsroom scenes were amongst the most convincing with Corrie Jackson doing a great job of portraying the high pressure environment and surly exchanges of a news team under scrutiny.
My principal problem with this novel is that there is far too much going on and that the story would have benefitted from being massively pared back. At times it is hard to sort the wheat from the chaff as Corrie Jackson throws an elaborate array of complexities into the mix, which caused my interest to flag and definitely made the entire likelihood of the events of the novel feel increasingly tenuous. There are essentially three main plot strands ongoing for the duration of the novel, all with some partial overlap becoming apparent as the truth slowly emerges and I found reading The Perfect Victim a rather chaotic experience as the reader waits to see how they all come together. By covering an unnecessary number of strands, the overall quality of the entire novel is reduced as Jackson spreads herself too thinly and does not do justice to any of her trio of elements. In truth, I thought the partial digging into Tommy’s death could have been omitted completely in favour of fleshing out the leading characters and delivering more credible portrayals. I found it hard to empathise with any of the characters, particularly either Charlie and Emily Swift, who seem from their behaviour to display instances of multiple identities with all the authentic responses of puppets. On the strength of their shifting personalities, both are prime candidates for dissociative personality disorder! From affairs, pregnancies, alcohol, domestic violence, self harm, religious cults and random hook-ups with strangers, it turns out that both Charlie and Emily are nothing like their appearances. I am all for sleight of hand in an author’s execution so long as it enhances the story, but the disappointing thing is that I felt as confused by the lead characters in the closing pages as on outset. I did not warm to the character of Sophie, finding her rather mouthy and immature with an over inflated sense of her own importance, although liking the protagonist is not a necessity to my enjoyment of a novel. Alongside her hostile interaction with her father and caustic comments on her mother she seems to dredge up no end of sympathy for her drug addicted brother, all of which becomes somewhat irritating.
In conclusion, I think the largest problem with The Perfect Victim is the convoluted plot with Jackson guilty of opting for melodramatic in the hope of compelling readers with rapid fire twists and holding attention with shock tactics. The result is a mess, with numerous unnecessary kinks in the plot, all with the result of reducing the likelihood of such a fortuitously well timed sequence of events ever occurring. Readers will no doubt appreciate the tech heavy and social media focus of this novel which contributes to making the story feel frenzied and edgy . A bizarre read which will work for readers who seek twist laden action, however unlikely, as opposed to characters with substance and a vaguely credible storyline. Particularly disappointing is that there is very little groundwork laid in the build up to the final and utterly bewildering discovery and this lack of signposting left me questioning the worth of the preceding four-hundred-pages.
As the novel opens the eyes of the country are fixed on the imminent verdict of the murder trial of Eric Rowntree, a man charged with killing his wife and sons, however an increasingly delayed decision on the part of the jury leaves the media scrambling for stories to fill the empty copy. Thus when the body of a woman is washed up on the banks of the Thames and she is found to have been murdered it isn’t long before the full glare of the media spotlight turns to her violent demise. In a matter of days, Sophie’s friend and business editor at the London Herald, Charlie Swift, is named as the prime suspect, suspiciously coinciding with him disappearing and becoming uncontactable. In the face of mounting public suspicion Sophie refuses to doubt her friend and as the vultures circle she resorts to drastic measures to clear his name and piece together just what was going on in the life of the murder victim, a partner at a successful law firm.
Recently married to his second wife, wedding planner Emily, following the death from leukaemia of his cherished first wife, Charlie had finally looked to be a man getting a second chance at happiness. Emily vocally stands by her man and publishes a series of posts on her relationship blog avowing her support and giving her side of the story. As a series of increasingly left-field and frankly flabbergasting revelations play out the story is comprised of the first person narrative of Sophie as she endeavours to get to the truth and punctuated with third person snapshots of Emily’s life over the last forty-nine weeks prior to the murder and gradually counting down to the present day. However numerous curveballs do not necessarily equate to a compelling novel and despite new revelations being uncovered almost with each chapter, the drama rather smothers the basic premise of this novel as the revelations become increasingly improbable. Sophie’s faith in soon confronted by the facade of a happy marriage slipping away, posing the question of how well can a person ever know what goes on between a married couple? As Sophie puts her reputation on the line and eventually tracks back to the haphazard upbringing of Charlie with a troubled mother and repressed childhood trauma and publicly questions the innocence of Emily and her media manipulation, she is devastated by a damning video making Charlie’s hideous betrayal of her apparent. Could a killer lurk behind the veneer of bonhomie that colleague, friend and husband, Charlie Swift, displays to the world?
Tenacious Sophie Kent is an ambitious reporter with a fractious relationship with her wealthy parents and has recently discovered that her homeless and drug addicted younger brother, Tommy, was intentionally murdered as opposed to having committed suicide. Outside of her work she is committed to uncovering who took her brothers life. Alongside this she has a ‘history’ with her immediate superior News Editor, Mack Winterson, is drawn to police contact and inside source, DCI Sam Durand and undergoing therapy and reliant on sleeping pills following a close encounter with a serial killer! After an experience with the maverick journalist Jack Parlabane brought to life in the novels of Christopher Brookmyre, I found Sophie much less imaginative an investigator with her straightforward methods and although she did become a little more dynamic, I thought her senior newsroom colleague, Kate, was altogether more inspirational and sparky. The newsroom scenes were amongst the most convincing with Corrie Jackson doing a great job of portraying the high pressure environment and surly exchanges of a news team under scrutiny.
My principal problem with this novel is that there is far too much going on and that the story would have benefitted from being massively pared back. At times it is hard to sort the wheat from the chaff as Corrie Jackson throws an elaborate array of complexities into the mix, which caused my interest to flag and definitely made the entire likelihood of the events of the novel feel increasingly tenuous. There are essentially three main plot strands ongoing for the duration of the novel, all with some partial overlap becoming apparent as the truth slowly emerges and I found reading The Perfect Victim a rather chaotic experience as the reader waits to see how they all come together. By covering an unnecessary number of strands, the overall quality of the entire novel is reduced as Jackson spreads herself too thinly and does not do justice to any of her trio of elements. In truth, I thought the partial digging into Tommy’s death could have been omitted completely in favour of fleshing out the leading characters and delivering more credible portrayals. I found it hard to empathise with any of the characters, particularly either Charlie and Emily Swift, who seem from their behaviour to display instances of multiple identities with all the authentic responses of puppets. On the strength of their shifting personalities, both are prime candidates for dissociative personality disorder! From affairs, pregnancies, alcohol, domestic violence, self harm, religious cults and random hook-ups with strangers, it turns out that both Charlie and Emily are nothing like their appearances. I am all for sleight of hand in an author’s execution so long as it enhances the story, but the disappointing thing is that I felt as confused by the lead characters in the closing pages as on outset. I did not warm to the character of Sophie, finding her rather mouthy and immature with an over inflated sense of her own importance, although liking the protagonist is not a necessity to my enjoyment of a novel. Alongside her hostile interaction with her father and caustic comments on her mother she seems to dredge up no end of sympathy for her drug addicted brother, all of which becomes somewhat irritating.
In conclusion, I think the largest problem with The Perfect Victim is the convoluted plot with Jackson guilty of opting for melodramatic in the hope of compelling readers with rapid fire twists and holding attention with shock tactics. The result is a mess, with numerous unnecessary kinks in the plot, all with the result of reducing the likelihood of such a fortuitously well timed sequence of events ever occurring. Readers will no doubt appreciate the tech heavy and social media focus of this novel which contributes to making the story feel frenzied and edgy . A bizarre read which will work for readers who seek twist laden action, however unlikely, as opposed to characters with substance and a vaguely credible storyline. Particularly disappointing is that there is very little groundwork laid in the build up to the final and utterly bewildering discovery and this lack of signposting left me questioning the worth of the preceding four-hundred-pages.