By Maureen Myant https://www.maureenmyant.co.uk/ @maureenmyant
Published by Hobeck Books https://www.hobeck.net @HobeckBooks
353 pages ISBN
Publication date 1 August 2023
The Deception is the second novel to feature DI Alex Scrimgeour. Click on the link to see my thoughts on the first novel in the series The Confession.
I was sent an electronic copy in exchange for a fair review. I would like to thank Rebecca at Hobeck Books and the Author for the invitation to participate in the Blog Tour.
The Cover
A blue Silver Cross pram which proves to be vital within the plot.
From the blurb
When Kate’s mother dies, a man turns up at the funeral claiming to be her uncle. Kate is mystified; her mother was an only child. She agrees to meet him but when she tells him more about herself, he disappears. It’s best to forget him and get on with the business of grieving but when she finds her own death certificate, she realises she can’t let it drop. Besides, there are the threatening phone calls and messages to her mother to consider…
Four hundred miles away in Glasgow, DI Alex Scrimgeour is haunted by memories of past crimes. Is he responsible for a miscarriage of justice? He’s already worried when Kate contacts him with her story. If she is who she thinks she is, it could ruin his entire career. Despite their mutual antipathy, only by working together will they understand the past and finally put old ghosts to rest.
My thoughts
After reading The Confession I wanted to learn more about DI Alex Scrimgeour as a person. He may have had little more than a cameo role in the first novel, and even though he is somewhat dour and obnoxious character, there seemed to be little chinks of sunlight trying break through, like through the grey skies of Glasgow. Call it reader’s instinct, there is a story to be told and thanks to Maureen Myant it is quite a story.
Imagine what might happen and what you might do, if everything you understood about yourself was stripped away from you like a conjuror pulling away a tablecloth. Would you wobble a little but retain your composure or would smash to the floor in a thousand pieces? This is what befell Kate following the death of her mother (Mirren) when a man claiming to be her uncle arrives on her doorstep. A huge shock if true because her mother told her she had no living relatives. Later when going through her mother’s paperwork she discovers her whole life has been a lie. Shellshocked she is determined to get to the truth about her mother and her own existence, otherwise unanchored she will be destined to drift through life uncertain who she really is.
Alex had his life shattering experience many years ago and it has had a profound effect upon his life since then. He still carries the hurt, the mental scars of the events that shattered his family. Time is not always a healer. Even approaching the end of his career there is little respite has the family responsibility of caring for his mother has been left to him alone. She is suffering with Alzheimer’s and so he has invested a great deal of time, effort, and expense in finding a suitable care home for her to spend her final days. Now she is finally settled he has become concerned following an anonymous phone call highlighting suspicious deaths at the home. As if that was not enough to contend with, an old case is threatening to open old wounds.
As crime novels go this is a thoughtful and considered one, that examines emotions and motivations rather than providing action and thrills. The result is a story that even this jaded old cynic found rather touching. The core of the plot is a journey into the past, but also physical journey for Kate has she travels to Glasgow to discover her roots. Along the way Kate makes missteps that upset those around her, both at home in Buckinghamshire and in Glasgow, and even some danger. Most of all it is the hurt that trying to discover the truth causes others as old wounds are reopened and secrets revealed. The central theme is admittedly dark, one that will send shivers down the spine of parents but it is handled with confidence and a lightness of touch.
The plotting is excellent, tight and careful, with time slips and characters in denial to add confusion. That the one thing that Mirren loved and excelled at but was denied should prove the key is satisfyingly fitting.
Strong characters are essential for a novel like this one and the two main ones are great creations. Kate is the modern woman shielded for the worst of life by a protective mother (one who does so for her own reasons) who must come to terms with harsh realities. Wracked with insecurities and doubts her journey into the past becomes one of self-discovery as well searching for her true identity. The paradox of her hardening her heart to those of her who have used her whilst opening it to the new ‘family’ in her life is perfectly judged.
As for Alex, his story is much deeper than I could have ever imagined. Considering what he has gone through his obnoxiousness seems a mere bagatelle, so cut the man some slack, I know I wouldn’t have coped as well. Alex is such a wonderful creation I have my fingers and toes crossed for a few more stories featuring him.
The Deception is a thoughtful and touching examination of identity, family and the desire to know one’s ancestry.
The Deception can be purchased direct from the publisher here
The author
I always wanted to be a writer. Blame Enid Blyton. I picked up The Valley of Adventure when I was six years old, read it in a couple of hours and immediately read it again. I realised then that I wanted to tell stories or better still to write them down. I did write down a story the next day but left it outside when I went in to get my dinner. This was my first experience of losing the plot.
I loved English at school and occasionally wrote stories to entertain my fellow pupils. They were rude and full of profanities. If teachers had seen them it would have been immediate expulsion but fortunately they never did. In the end I destroyed them, in case they did fall into the wrong hands.
I studied psychology at university and often wonder why I left English behind. My family and career came first for many years and I only started writing seriously in my forties. I did an MLitt in Creative Writing at Glasgow University followed by a PhD. I have retired from my job as an educational psychologist and now write full time.
Source: Author’s website
Don’t forget to check out the other reviews from this Blog Tour:
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