Great Reads for Great Readers

 

Gone by Morning, by Michele Weinstat Miller.

 

   

        
68-year-old Kathleen Harris is having a morning trip on New York’s vast subway system.  Her carriage is full of happy tourists, and ordinary folk who try to ignore them – until a bomb goes off just up the line and everybody scrambles in panicked hordes to gain the safety of the street:  it transpires that the bomb in a backpack was placed in a garbage bin and has caused huge loss of life and enormous damage.  Kathleen’s aborted trip to the city results in a four-hour walk home to her suburban apartment in a building - which she owns.  For Kathleen is a retired Madam;  she has seen much more of the harsh side of life than your average sweet little old lady, having been a crack addict and serving a 5-year jail term for buying the heroin on which her husband fatally overdosed.  She lost custody of her only daughter Lauren too whilst in jail and has been estranged from her for many years, her daughter blaming her for all their misfortune.  So, despite her material security, Kathleen has lost everything she ever loved on her way to respectability.

            In her own way she has tried to make amends, secretly helping her granddaughter Emily get an influential job in the Mayor’s Office, and making available one of her apartments for her to rent.  So far, so good, until Kathleen receives a call after the bombing from one of her ‘girls’ who needs to see her urgently, something she can’t speak of on the phone – then doesn’t arrive.  Her body is found dumped days later.  Her throat has been cut.

            Ms Miller also has the reader by the throat, and doesn’t let go:  she is masterly at directing suspense in whichever way she feels inclined, and she has plenty relevant to say about the hypocrisy of people’s attitude towards sex workers, and what drives those women towards The Life – with Kathleen being a perfect example.  The plot thickens most satisfyingly, veering off in unpredictable directions, especially concerning the Bomber - and that is enjoyable;  there is nothing worse than knowing WhoDunnit before the writer reveals all.  Ms Miller’s prose can be a bit rough around the edges and she must know just about every eatery and café in New York, giving them all a plug, but she raises some very cogent arguments in favour of those who live The Life and do the dirty jobs – because they must.  FOUR STARS.