The Poison Tree

After I'd brought this book home, I felt a nagging certainty that Erin Kelly was one of the new authors who sat just behind me at last year's Winchester Conference. In any event, I'm very glad I read The Poison Tree.

Much of my second novel is told from a woman's point of view, so I'd been looking for a contemporary crime / thriller, with a female protagonist. Women write in a different way - their characters notice different things, and their thought processes flow with different priorities. Getting that right will certainly be a challenge.

But what of The Poison Tree? It's an intriguing story of a young woman, drawn into the compelling and disturbing world of a brother and sister who live in a vast old house in London. There's plenty of tragedy, and some delicious twists, as the story unfolds in two timelines towards a dramatic finale. There's a gentle intensity to the writing that I really enjoyed, and echoes of Brideshead Revisited that made me smile.

I've only finished it today, and I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending, but it's been a compelling read. I just hope some of that feminine tone rubs off on me.