This crime story from a British seaside town, hosts many foreign intrusions and can feel a little disjointed. The main character is not a police officer nor an amateur sleuth, more a bystander who gets questioned by police after a disappearance, and is later suspected of participating in a murder. The LIMELIGHT formula may feel strange to some readers, who are more used to the traditional setups.
Enora Andressen features in the fourth book of this series about an actress recovering from serious illness and resting between parts and heartbreaks. She visits a friend, Evelyn Warlock, in Budleigh Salterton, a town near the major city Portsmouth. Only the better-off seem to have moved out here, away from the sleaze and serious crimes of the dock city. Christianne Beaucarne, a neighbour of Evelyn, is a French lady battling her own serious illness, with the support of a wounded warrior partner, Andy McFaul. This part is quite slow, just introducing the cast in a series of social calls. Enora returns to her London pad, and there is shocked to hear that Christianne has vanished, thought to have swum out to sea to drown herself. As no body is found, suspicion falls upon her partner.
Taking the protagonist away from the drama and obliging her to return, sets the reader at a remove from the possible crime, and indeed Enora is on the wrong side of police tape for a detective, and is asked serious questions by a series of police officers (sometimes with her lawyer) which again, sets the reader at a further remove from the immediate crime and detection. The tale feels quite remote to me, with news reported rather than discovered, and Enora never once seems to feel any urgency or be in any danger, though I’m sure this wasn’t the case in all her other adventures. It’s worth noting that the author Graham Hurley uses this episode to address the issue of living with a steadily worsening disease, and whether people should be able to decide when their life is no longer worth living.
The tale feels out of date, although it’s set last year, since a light plane is used instead of a drone to film from the air, and when trying to find a computer file on a laptop, the suggestion of a cloud backup is never once made. Enora, strangely, does not seem to care about this valuable file, handing the laptop to a man she’s met once, who has just experienced trauma, instead of to a professional IT firm with credentials. I have not read any earlier books in the ‘Enora Andressen’ series, and might have enjoyed LIMELIGHT more if I had. British author Graham Hurley has excelled over the years at carefully crafted police procedurals showing the gutter side of Portsmouth, and although I’ll never forgive him for killing off a main character, I don’t believe that affected my satisfaction with his newer series. Try this crime tale if you want a change from the usual scene, and a variety of characters.
Life is dangerous. No one survives it. Enora Andressen makes a series of mind-blowing discoveries when her friend disappears in this compelling thriller set in an idyllic Devon town.
Actress Enora Andressen is catching up with her ex-neighbour, Evelyn Warlock, who's recently retired to the comely East Devon seaside town of Budleigh Salterton. The peace, the friendship of strangers and the town’s prestigious literary festival . . . Evelyn loves them all.
Until the September evening when her French neighbour, Christianne Beaucarne, disappears. Enora has met this woman. The two of them have bonded. But what Enora discovers over the anguished months to come will put sleepy Budleigh Salterton on the front page of every newspaper in the land . . .
Limelight is a completely gripping and fascinating thriller featuring strong characters forced to make impossible decisions, the impact of which will be felt far beyond their quiet town...
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