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The Poison Tree: A Sweet, Surprising and Sophisticated Thriller

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The Poison Tree is as decadent as your finest chocolate, a truly delicious hold-all-my-calls kind of book. It has all of the elements of a bestseller and, at times reminded me a bit of a drug trip. This read was truly addictive and when it was over I was truly craving more. The Poison Tree, by first time author Erin Kelly, arrived accompanying the latest novel of a more established author and I wasn’t even planning to give this a read for months because it wasn’t requested by me and my list of titles to review is massive. But from the second I picked this one up I was gone. The Poison Tree begins as Karen Clarke and daughter Alice,9, have just picked up Rex Capel from prison. He has been there serving a sentence for murder. Now he is to be reintegrated into his former life, or what is left of that life. We know Rex is Alice’s father, but we don’t know why he was in prison exactly. The narrator Karen, preoccupied and somewhat paranoid, lets drop a single name BIBA on the car ride back to their new life together and that sets the stage for the slow unravelling of the story of Rex, Biba and Karen. Rex and Biba are brother and sister, orphans they claim, inaccurately. Karen, a gifted language student, is going through the motions of completing her ascent into academia saddled with a dull boyfriend named Simon. When he breaks up with her she finds herself numb to the loss and open to the idea of possibility. Right on the cusp of one memorable summer, Karen encounters Biba, a young actress seeking a dialect coach. Biba is a force of nature, flamboyant, exotic and charmingly magnetic. But the very energy that fuels her desirability also threatens to consume her and anyone who gets close to her. Kelly’s first novel could have easily slipped into softcore porn territory, but it falls just shy of treading there, showing remarkable restraint on the part of the author. This is the story of one self indulgent summer that changes the course of all their lives. There are many surprises here in this taut thriller that is extremely well written for a first novel. I hesitate to spoil any of them for my readers. Erin Kelly is a former freelance journalist from North London. Her prose can be quite lovely; for instance: “That night in bed I lay awake on my right-hand side. Bruises, like sunburn are nocturnal and the one on my left thigh was waking up as I tried to sleep, a soft dark badge to commemorate the day’s chases and revelations.” Strangely, this is a novel that works very well alternating back and forth between past and present. The author does so in a logical fashion, as her narrator moves in and out memory, often triggered by a word. Kelly doesn’t superimpose a new chapter or alternate voices to cue the reader to her intent. Although there are a few jarring transitions, for the most part, this style creates a hazy almost drugged feel to the book, echoing the experience of that summer. The past blurs with the present and the effect is almost seamless, organic. Tiny clues are dropped throughout the book about the crimes that took place and the ensuing scandal. But in the end I didn’t find the outcome to be predictable at all. In fact, as I slowly guessed one plot twist another would blindside me. If I had to pick a single fault in this amazing read it would be the prologue which sets the tone, but also isn’t really necessary to the plot. The title of the novel is taken from William Blake’s poem “A Poison Tree.” The Poison Tree is a stunning debut.
The Poison Tree, by Erin Kelly, Paula Dorman Books Viking, Jan. 10, 2011, 322 pages, $26.50 US and $33.50 Canadian. Thriftymommastips rates this one $$$$ out of $$$$$. I received a free copy of the book in order to complete this review.

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