Truly, Darkly, Deeply
Victoria Selman
The copy I have was a freebee from CrimeFest, (it’s not due out until July) and the moment I saw its beautifully designed, black cover, with its sealed, folding flap, I knew it would be my next read.
Told in two time frames, it’s narrated by a twelve-year-old girl, Sophie who moves, with her single mother, from Massachusetts to North London at the beginning of the 1980s. There they meet Matty Melgren, a charismatic Irishman who starts dating Sophie’s mother. With no father figure, Sophie finds in Matty someone to fill that void in her life and soon she feels her family is complete.
But there is a serial killer stalking the streets of London, killing young women in a ritualistic manner, and so we see the investigation unfold during the book, and it gets steadily darker and darker.
The second time frame, interleaved with the first, is set twenty years later. Matty is now serving life without parole for the murders – crimes that he swears he is not guilty of. Sophie is wracked with guilt for not seeing him for what he was, yet is still plagued with doubts. What if the man she loved like a father is innocent after all? And then she receives a letter from him. He’s dying and he asks to see her in prison…
This book is a masterclass in the slow reveal. The two threads are woven together seamlessly, each retaining their own separate feel and identity. 1980s London is interspersed with life twenty-odd years later. Matty’s case remains an obsession to many, with numerous true crime documentaries and websites rehashing events; some believe he’s guilty, others are convinced of his innocence.
Usually such books are divided into sections, with each timeline clearly labelled. But Selman hasn’t done that here. The short chapters weave between the two times, but she maintains a distinctiveness between each period that means the reader is never in any doubt when the chapter is set. As the book unfolds, the reader is not quite sure if Matty is guilty. The evidence was enough to convict him in 1983, yet there is enough reasonable doubt that you can’t be completely certain.
The skill here is in the writing; the novel is an acutely observed study of uncertainty. We follow Sophie’s story as she negotiates her early teenage years; then we see her as a grown woman, haunted by the events of two decades ago. Period details and references to current affairs keep the sections in the 1980s firmly grounded in that time period, whilst the contemporary sections supply a commentary on our modern obsession with serial killers from the past, and ‘citizen detectives’.
The book builds to its climax slowly, yet never feels laboured, and you are immersed in the story. By keeping the book firmly in the first person throughout, you are only ever privy to what Sophie knows. But because it’s set in two time periods, you find yourself scrutinising the earlier parts of the story with the benefit of hindsight. Fundamentally, the question you find yourself trying to answer, is whether Sophie was hoodwinked or not?
This was a fantastic read, and I highly recommend it.
As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
Best wishes,
Paul
