I’ve always liked Jodi Picoult’s books in the main and think that she delivers good stories; I’m not familiar with Jennifer Finney Boylan’s work although that will change on the strength of this read. I know that Picoult’s novels often deal with thorny issues, representative of the times that we live in and present the viewpoints that threaten to divide, in very human stories, with a stress on that – the humans, the people who are affected, who live the lives that we question ethically or morally or simply because we don’t understand..
This collaboration is no different in terms of the plot of the book. When Asher Fields is accused of killing his girlfriend, Lily Campanello, we are thrown into the middle of a murder trial where piece by piece the truth about what happened is revealed.
But it is a twisty turny revealing, taking us hither and thither. The narrative is told through the voices of Lily and Olivia, Lily as mentioned above, the girlfriend of Asher while Olivia is Asher’s mum. There are parallels between Lily and Asher in that both are only children who live with their mothers, mothers who have left their husbands for the same reasons: to protect their child. Olivia’s story in particular centres on her relationship with her successful surgeon husband and we learn about his anger issues and possessive controlling behaviour. It makes for hard reading at times but I like this about the book as Picoult is never one to shirk the difficult issues of 21st century life, although abusive husbands are nothing new.
In the background of all this too is beekeeping. There are so many books which feature bees somewhere in the narrative but in the book, Picoult and Finney Boylan use Olivia’s occupation as beekeeper to make comparisons and analogies and statements about what is going on elsewhere in the book. I found this incredibly interesting in its own right and wonder if the inclusion of the bees as a device was more than it first appears, because the matriarchal structure of the beehive is in stark contrast to the domination that our female characters experience in their world.
Either way, bees figure a lot and the book is all the better for this. It is good, with a well-executed plot which reveals by degrees with shocks and heart and reconciliation, leading to a conclusion which satisfies.
Scuffed Granny 