Can Anybody Help Me by Sinéad Crowley
Genre; Crime fiction
It was crazy really, she had never met the woman, had no idea of her real name but she thought of her as a friend. Or, at least, the closest thing she had to a friend in Dublin.
Struggling with a new baby, Yvonne turns to netmammy, an online forum for mothers, for support. Drawn into a world of new friends, she spends increasing amounts of time online and volunteers more and more information about herself.
When one of her new friends goes offline, Yvonne thinks something is wrong, but dismisses her fears. After all, does she really know this woman?
But when the body of a young woman with striking similarities to Yvonne’s missing friend is found, Yvonne realises that they’re all in terrifying danger. Can she persuade Sergeant Claire Boyle, herself about to go on maternity leave, to take her fears seriously?
My Thoughts:
This is the last of my holiday reads. Or the last of my holiday reads that I enjoyed and I’m sharing. (If I don’t enjoy it, I don’t share it.)
This is the debut novel by Sinéad Crowley and the first featuring Sergeant Claire Boyle. It was interesting to read a novel where the police protagonist was pregnant. And heavily pregnant at that. It made her feel real, as though she actually had a real life and wasn’t just created for a novel if you know what I mean.
The novel is narrated from the points of view of pregnant Sergeant Boyle and new mum Yvonne and what I really liked about it is how it is based on the internet and how much information we tend to put out there about ourselves and how over time we have given away far more than we maybe have realised. The internet is a fascinating and current subject and I enjoy when it is covered well, which this is.
Early motherhood and the difficulties it presents is also a topic covered well with the character of Yvonne as we watch as she feels drained and isolated with her new baby and with a husband with a busy job who helps as often as he can, but that isn’t as often as is needed. Yvonne is a very identifiable character which is what made this book so good for me I think.
Through her isolation Yvonne turns to the internet and to Netmammy and gets close to some of the women on there and in turn gets concerned when the body of a woman turns up and one of her ‘friends’ hasn’t been online for a while. Life and online get blurred and Yvonne gets embroiled in a dangerous situation that is unnerving to watch unfold.
I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the Sergeant Boyle series.
With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my copy.
What an interesting premise for a novel, Rebecca. And I can easily see how the suspense would be built. You make a good point too about the fact that Claire Boyle is pregnant. I’ve read that scenario in a few books, and it does make the character seem more real.
It’s the first one I’ve read with a pregnant protagonist Margot and it did work very well for me.