Investigating the past (Person or Persons Unknown - Anthea Fraser)

Member Name: CPTDANIELS

Product:	Person or Persons Unknown - Anthea Fraser
Date:	16/05/09 (128 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well written and great storyline

Disadvantages: Quite a lot of irrelevant information

==Background:==

I am always looking to try new and different authors from the ones I already know. On a recent visit to my Solicitor she was telling me about Anthea Fraser and how she is one of her favourite authors, she urged me to try one of her crime thrillers. So I was keen to try one and see what my Solicitor taste were like, expensive and sophisticated I thought!

==About the author:==

Anthea Fraser was born back in 1930 and had her first novel published in 1970. Since then she has written another 34 books under her own name and five under the pseudonym of Vanessa Graham. These have included paranormal themes, romantic suspense and crime fiction. This book I am about the review is one of six featuring Rona Parish and was written in 2005.

==Synopsis of the book:==

Rona Parish is a young lady who earns her living as a biographer and freelance journalist in Buckford. When at a party she is approached by a pregnant young lady Zara Crane. In conversation she asks if Rona would like try and find both her father who disappeared believed to have immigrated to Australia and her mother's killer. As she was murdered in her bath when Zara was only a few weeks old.

Rona will have to draw on all the information available to try and track down both. As this all took place some 25 years ago and even then the Police could not find her mother's killer.

Having been involved in two previous murder investigations in the past, where she has herself been in danger, he husband Max is not keen for her to take this new assignment on.

Despite this she sets out to find the truth, by firstly checking with her mother's former flatmate Selina O'Toole and all the neighbours to see if she can find who remember Zara's mother. Hoping to somehow find some information that the Police may have missed. She gives herself six weeks to find any new information if she is not successful after that time she will return to her usual work.

==My thoughts on this book:==

Having never read anything by this author before my expectation to start with were pretty low. This is nothing against this author I tend like many people to like what I know and have little belief in what I don't know, especially in novels. But to my surprise I found I really enjoyed this novel and found it an excellent suspense book. It was well written and the story flowed well and in no time at all I had completed it and more importantly found a new author's who work appeals to me.

This is the third of six so far in the Rona Parish investigation series. I did not find not having read the first two a problem at all, although there was an occasional reference to what work and danger she had been involved in before. So for any new reader to the Rona Parish books, do not be put off by reading a later one in her trilogy series. My reason for picking the third one was unfortunately the other two were not stocked at that library.

The reason I picked up this book initially was sadly because I liked the sound of the title as it sounded full of possibilities. So I flipped the book over and read the painfully short summary. However despite it's length there was enough there to captivate my interest. I love a good investigation, so once I had read this I was more confident that I would like this book.

Initially I found the book a little slow and heavy going and it was quite a while before Rona actually began her investigation. There was quite a bit of useful background information that helped me develop a good picture and understanding of Rona Parish's life and her families too. I just tend to prefer crime novels that immediately set you with the challenge of the crime.

Despite this slow start, I found the book easy to get into and I enjoyed the author's creative and thoughtful writing style. However, once the story began in earnest the pace was fast and there was always something happening and it was usually exciting at the same time. Indeed it was written so well I did not have a clue who either the murderer or Zara's father was until practically the end of the story.

The author was a superb at adding mystery to this investigation. She did this by giving the reader just enough information to make you wonder about each of the suspects and then through Rona's investigation she would uncover something about them that shed a different light on them.

The story for this novel was very interesting and I liked the way Rona approached it I enjoyed all the cunning twists and turns the author employed so that you were never sure who the killer was and on several occasions I was mis-lead by her superb writing in thinking I knew the solution only to be wildly inaccurate.

I know in most good suspense or mystery novels the author allows the reader to get to know investigators private life, but in this novel I felt she went to far. As there was a sub story dealing with Rona's Mum and Dad and their marriage falling apart. I question whether this was required as it certainly wasn't relevant. Although it was quite interesting and well written I was far more interested in the case their daughter was working on than their marital problems. Which failed to be either interesting or relevant.

While on the negatives about this book I have one more. This was probably the most bizarre finish to a novel I have ever read. The conclusion was reached to Rona's work and it was all explained and then it just finished. There were no after thoughts from anyone else involved and indeed no update about what happened next. Maybe the author wanted us to use our own imagination, but to be honest I just felt a little conned and let down by it. I suppose it was certainly different!

The characters the author used in this novel were first class. They were all described perfectly and were both interesting and diverse in their personalities. Rona was the lead character and I found her to be very likeable as she was hard working and honest, while not afraid to make a mistake or go down a wrong route occasionally, which she did, but bounced immediately back.

The support characters also impressed me, as they were cleverly thought out despite only playing a very minor role in the book. Too often I find writers whose support characters are weak on both character and personality but in this book the author had clear picture in her mind and this was nicely translated through her writing. This also helped add mystery to the piece as it raised more questions about whether they were capable of being a murderer.

I was surprised when I came to look for more information on the author that she didn't have her own web site, to be honest I find that rather strange these days. As it is and ideal tool to broadcast and advertise you're work.

The novel's length was quite short and an epilogue would certainly have helped. As the end of the book was certainly lacking something and in a way it detracted for me from a super well told story that had preceded it.

==Conclusion:==

Ok I must admit my Solicitor has got good taste when it comes to her reading material anyway. Just wish she would charge me less when I go and see her!!. This was a very good, enjoyable crime novel. It was consistently well written and full of mystery. I would recommend it to all crime fiction fans as a pulsating read. I certainly will be trying another of her novels but probably not another one from this series for a while.


==Other Information:==

Pages: 249
Publisher: Severn House
Price: £7.19 (New Amazon)
ISBN: 0-7278-9135-9
About the author: www.fantasticfiction/f/anthea-fraser

Thank you for reading my review.

This review is published on both Ciao and Dooyoo under my user name.

@CPTDANIELS May 2009.

Summary: excellent crime novel