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McMenamin, Geraldine - 'The Same Cloth'
Hardback: 224 pages (Sep. 2008) Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd ISBN: 0709086733

Set in Ireland, Helen Rafferty returns to visit her mother having not spoken to each other for a number of years, after hearing that her mother is very ill. Whilst at the house, all of her memories come flooding back of times spent at this remote house. As she struggles to overcome the difficulties of the past, she finds out that her son Jack has been kidnapped and her husband Karl doesn't know what has happened.

She is offered help by Frank Callan who seems to know more than he wants to say. As she races back to Dublin to find out what is going on, she is handed a ransom demand - if she wants to get her son back she must find her father's will. Her husband Karl is then arrested over fraudulent art dealing, so Helen must try to save her son herself.

As Helen desperately searches her mother's house, it is obvious that the will is somewhere she lived during her childhood. With Frank's help, Helen tries to put all of the pieces of her life together to find the missing will. As she tries to recall her early simpler life before her mother married her wealthy stepfather, Helen must face some of the memories she has suppressed. Helen finds out that her husband Karl has been a regular visitor to her mother's home - what is happening? - since her fall out with her mother was because she was with Karl.

As Helen and Frank chase around Ireland desperately trying to solve the mystery of the missing it is obvious someone is after them - is it the same person holding Helen's son captive? When Helen finally discovers that the house she needs to find, it is the first one she lived in - the only problem is that it is up for auction. Can they get there in time? The story moves along at a fast pace until the surprising conclusion.

This is the first book by Geraldine McMenamin and I will certainly be looking forward to her next book.

Paul Blackburn, Scotland
March 2009

More European crime fiction reviews can be found on the Reviews page.




last updated 15/04/2009 08:38