About The Book
Emma Webster is a respectable MP.
Emma Webster is a devoted mother.
Emma Webster is innocent of the murder of a tabloid journalist.
Emma Webster is a liar.
#Reputation: The story you tell about yourself. And the lies others choose to believe…
My Review
With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. I rarely read political fiction and I have never read a novel by Sarah Vaughan, but I did recently watch the dramatised version of Anatomy of a Scandal which I enjoyed a lot. I’m glad I made the decision to read this book because it is a cracker and I’m certain that this will also be filmed at some point.
Many of us will see politicians being passionate about something they agree with and who want to make changes to make victims suffer less. But not everybody will see the impact that this passion could have on their private lives. Especially when their child commits an act they are trying to prevent and which consequently damages a relationship and leads to them being tried for murder. The character who has to deal with all of this is Emma, ex school teacher, divorcee and dedicated to her career as an MP despite it leading to so much time away from her daughter Flora.
Whilst the main storyline concerns the death of the journalist and subsequent trial there is also a lot of focus on the amount of abuse that MPs and other public figures face daily. I was horrified at what Emma and others, had to cope with. A lot of which wasn’t dealt with quickly enough. You also got to see the impact on loved ones, especially Flora who had to deal with her own trauma at school. Flora was a character who I liked a lot and had a lot of sympathy for. All I could see when she featured was loneliness.
Emma isn’t the only narrator, you also get to read Flora’s and her stepmother Caroline’s point of view and towards the end a handful of others. All of these showed a completely different side to the novel and Emma’s storyline and one in particular I read with a sense of relief.
A crime novel concerning politics will never be anything I read about a lot but I feel that this novel is an important one. Especially when you hear about the threat faced far too often by those who try and do some good.
Sarah Vaughan will be appearing at First Monday Crime alongside Will Carver, Sinead Crowley and Victoria Selman. You can catch the event on the Facebook page at 7.30pm on Monday 6th June.
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