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Women in peril flit through the pages of traditional Gothic fiction, murmuring ‘Had I but known!’ as they fall for the wrong man, open the wrong door or apply for the wrong job. The poet Sophie Hannah takes the trusty formula in both hands, gives it a vigorous shake and uses it to produce something fascinating and original in her first novel.
In this case the woman in question is Alice. Still reeling from the death of her parents in a car crash, she has married the dashing David and acquired a new family in the shape of his welcoming (and wealthy) mother Vivienne and his son Felix by a previous marriage. David’s first wife was murdered, but the killer was caught and is now in jail.
Alice moves into the lavishly equipped family home. The novel starts at the point when her happiness should be complete — a fortnight after the birth of her baby, Florence. Alice returns from a brief trip to the health club and instantly raises the alarm — Florence has been kidnapped, and in her place has been left an almost identical baby wearing Florence’s Babygro.
But David is convinced that the baby in the nursery is their daughter; Alice must have gone mad. Vivienne is unsure whom to believe. The police are summoned. Pending the results of a DNA test, there is no way to prove whether the baby in the nursery is Florence or not. As David becomes increasingly hostile, Alice struggles to make the police take her seriously.
In parallel with Alice’s story, another strand of the narrative deals with the police investigation into Florence’s dis- appearance — and, increasingly, into the murder of David’s first wife, a case with too many loose ends. Simon, a talented but awkward detective constable, is unhealthily obsessed with Alice and is sure she is telling the truth; his sergeant (a woman) is obsessed with Simon; and their superior, the chilly and ruthless Inspector Proust, is obsessed with not wasting police resources on unsustainable investigations. The characters of the officers and the mysteries embedded in their relationships unfold in a strange counterpoint to Alice’s story.
This beautifully written novel repays careful reading. The mother-child relationship forms its emotional backbone. The double narrative is complex but carefully structured. The main characters have the messiness of real life; there is a sense of their confused existence continuing beyond the margins of the pages. The novel is outstandingly chilling — the relationship between David and Alice, for instance, is a textbook example of how to write effective psychological horror by creating a climate of fear. The violence is largely symbolic or self-inflicted by the victim, and terror lurks in the half- understood and in anticipation.
All in all, Little Face is a hugely promising debut. Sophie Hannah is an author to watch.
Andrew Taylor’s latest novel is A Stain on the Silence (Michael Joseph).
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