In another classic example of reader blindsightedness (okay so that's probably not a word), I'd filed SANCTUM somewhere at the back of the bookcase and promptly forgot it was there. Such a relief to unearth it during a recent tidy up and to move it straight to the top of the reading pile. Interestingly, as I sat down to write up this mini-review I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck rising slightly as I think about Lachlan in particular again.
Originally published in 2002, if you've not read SANCTUM for whatever reason, now is as good a time as any to rectify the miss. From the author of the much acclaimed Garnethill trilogy, this is a very different sort of a book. It's written in first person perspective, and whilst some readers are a bit leery of that, it works unbelievably well here. As SANCTUM explores the thinking of a husband whose wife is guilty of a murder, the use of Lachlan's own voice provides an intimacy that's disconcerting. It creates an insulated, personal, very intimate relationship between the character and the reader, and provides an author with Mina's skill with some serious options for manipulation (of the fairest possible kind mind you). Lachlan starts off very much as a man in grief, but it's not long before he becomes profoundly creepy, controlling and complaining. Other characters who come and go from his life astutely comment on him at points in the book. Susie, his wife, is distant, perfect, ethereal, extremely suspicious. There are others within the story - relatives, Susie's colleague, the live in help but ultimately this book is about Lachlan - even more so than it is about Susie and the man she murdered.
Lachlan, frankly, makes the reader extremely uncomfortable in his presence and you'd be excused for having some sympathy for Susie - as extreme an escape plan murder of another may well be. Sympathies ebb and flow, as ultimately the truth behind the murder is revealed. The Garnethill Trilogy remains one of my all time favourite sets of books - but SANCTUM is a fantastic stand-alone that was just absolutely un-put-downable.
Sanctum
Lachlan Harriot is in a state of shock. His wife Susie has been convicted of the murder of serial killer Andrew Gow, a prisoner in her care. Unless Harriot can come up with grounds for an appeal, Susie will be given a life sentence, depriving her of her home, her family and her two-year-old daughter.
Harriot is convinced that his wife, a respected forensic psychiatrist, is innocent, and each night he climbs the stairs to her study and goes through her papers, laboriously transcribing into his computer her case notes, her interviews with Gow and the press cuttings from the trial. But his search for the truth soon raises more questions than answers. Why had Susie stolen prison files and then lied about it? What was the nature of her relationship with Gow? And what is it in her study that she doesn’t want her husband to find? As things become ever more complex, he must decide what to do with a discovery that involves violence, sexual obsession, lust and ultimate betrayal.
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