Tuesday 24 December 2013

P.D. VINER - THE LAST WINTER OF DANI LANCING



Synopsis/blurb........

Something very bad happened to Dani Lancing.

Twenty years later, her father is still trying to get her to talk.

Her best-friend has become a detective, the last hope of all the lost girls.

And her mother is about to become a killer.

A hauntingly original debut that will stay with you long after the last page.

A fantastic debut, markedly different from the standard murdered girl, bereaved family and ensuing police investigation type of formulaic crime fiction. I’ll be honest, I was a little bit confused at the beginning with seemingly supernatural elements to the book, but by the first quarter I was lapping it up.

I probably could have finished this in half the time it eventually took, but work and life got out of balance and tiredness took over; all resulting in Dani Lancing taking the better part of a week to complete. Possibly more enjoyable for savouring the tale for longer and in smaller bites.

Friendship,  school, family, death, loss, University, journalism, police, forensics, affairs, drugs, adultery, abuse, Durham, marriage, love and secrets.

Enjoyable, satisfying, interesting ........all fairly meaningless adjectives when praising this remarkable read.  Viner’s depiction of a family’s grief and the fractures that follow is heart-rending.  The twists in the narrative when 20 years after Dani Lancing’s death, things begin to move towards a resolution are astonishing.

Hard to believe this is a first book. Definitely an author to look out for in the future.

Bang!  Viner smacks it out of the park!

5 from 5 – well worth a look.


Accessed via Net Galley. 

12 comments:

  1. OK yes, you've definitely sold me. It may take a while to get round to it, but I will definitely read this.

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    1. Moira - woohoo, we got there in the end! Well worth your time, whenever you can squeeze it in. A passage or two concerning clothes, that I even took notice of!

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  2. Col - I'd heard some very good things about this novel, but hadn't really made up my mind to read it. Looks like it's made its way onto my tottering TBR...

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    1. Margot hope you enjoy it if/when you get there!

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  3. Col, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your family! I have made a note of many of the authors you have read and reviewed so far this and P.D. Viner is one of them.

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    1. Prashant, thank you. I hope you enjoy Viner and some of the others next year!

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  4. Hey Col,

    This one sounds great! Thanks for the review. Hope you and your family had a great Christmas. I'll talk with you later. Happy New Year to you as well!

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    1. Keishon thanks. Great Christmas - managing to eat too much, as is usual for the time of year! I'll soon burn it off, turning the pages of a few books......haha.
      Best wishes for 2014!

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  5. This does sound good, and I will look out for a copy, although I am definitely cutting back on books (buying) in 2014. Coincidentally, I just read a book about grief and how it affects a family, but not crime fiction. That is a very interesting topic.

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    1. I think you would like this one Tracy. "Grief" does make for interesting reading - is it a bit ghoulish to say so?
      2014 - will definitely see me cutting back (at last), I ought to make proper lists instead and sit on them for a while, instead of impulse buying.

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    2. Me too (make lists, then wait for a while).

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    3. Good luck - we'll see who cracks first....I bet it's me! Maybe, I will try and hide my wallet and endeavour to forget where I put it!

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