Little Comfort
Little Comfort by Edwin Hill
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I am an avid reader of mystery fiction. I took a chance on this one, but it’s not remotely a mystery. Truly a thriller, albeit a “domestic” thriller. No spies or global intrigue. Just small towns, violent crimes, and hidden motives.
As with my other reviews, I won’t sum up the plot here. Just my thoughts and feelings after finishing the book.
Hester, the main character, has a somewhat thin reason for trying to find Sam Blaine. It’s easier than it should be, and barely a couple days go by before she has found her target. But the story takes a turn and we are thrust into the world that Sam and his friend Gabe have created.
We know who the bad guys are. We know eventually they will be caught. We know there will probably be at least a few deaths in between the beginning and the end. The two things we don’t know are: why are the bad guys bad, and how many deaths will it take to stop them?
Hester Thursby is a well drawn main character. We get to know her well, and Edwin Hill does an admirable job making her a complex human with flaws as well as endearing qualities. (but why, why is she such a small person? seems superfluous.) Her story intertwines with Sam and Gabe’s story. She struggles with her sense of self identity, newly thrust into a care-taking role she didn’t want but slowly becomes fiercely protective of.
The bad guys are bad…just how bad is slowly revealed. There is no mystery, but there is a back story, appropriately horrific, for why one of them does what he does. We really don’t have any explanation as to why the other one is such a damaged, evil person. My three stars might have been four if this had been handled more thoroughly.
As the story unfolds, Sam and Gabe’s current life builds focus and then slowly unravels. Hill has created compelling characters and a story you can see coming a mile away but still can’t tear your self away from. I finished the story feeling bad for everyone.
I wish Hill had taken more trouble fleshing out Hester’s partner, Morgan, and his sister Daphne.
Paper thin and completely unnecessary, Morgan is merely an annoyance. And Daphne lurks in the background; we never really get a sense of who she is or why Morgan and Hester are so protective of her and so willing to accept her disappearing and leaving them with her 3 year old daughter.
Edwin Hill has written a follow up, and I only hope that Morgan becomes the man that Hester and Kate deserve.