133,016
edits
Changes
The Suffering of Strangers by Caro Ramsay (view source)
Revision as of 21:02, 17 June 2019
, 21:02, 17 June 2019no edit summary
Before I started to read ''The Suffering of Strangers'' I read Bookbag's [[:Category:Caro Ramsay|reviews]] of two of Caro Ramsay's earlier books. I knew that I could look forward to what seemed like a cast of thousands and a complex plot. I wasn't disappointed. I knew too that I was joining a long-running and well-established series mid stream but I kept in mind that Ramsay fleshes out her characters well and I found it surprisingly easy to feel as though I was sitting in the middle of a busy office with them all around me. DCI Colin Anderson is now on cold cases - currently it's the rape of Gillian Witherspoon in August 1992. Costello's just emerging from a gruelling case of child abuse and her private life (what little time she gets for it) is looking a rather rocky.
It's a complex plot with threads involving child abuse and domestic violence, both of which are dealt with sensitively, but Ramsay makes it obvious that both exist where you least expect it. Most worrying to me was the trade in babies: numerous factors have meant that few healthy, white babies are put up for adoption and even then the tests to become a parent of one of these children are stringent and long lasting. They can of course be circumvented if only you have the five-to-six figure sum of money available. Is it illegal or is it just a 'private adoption'? Are the brokers simply putting a woman, who can't for one reason or another keep a baby, in touch with someone who is desperate to have one? And does the fact that a large sum of money has changed hands mean that the child will be loved? Yeah - sure.
Some books are satisfying. This was one of them and I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'll definitely be looking out for the next in the Anderson and Costello series. I'd like to thank the publishers for making a copy available to the Bookbag.