When the humdrum normality of a coffee shop in the morning rush hour is pierced by gunshots, life for the protagonists is irrevocably changed. We have the hostage-taker, a troubled young man with a shotgun. We have three hostages. We have the police negotiator who has to talk the gunman down on the phone.
Sam is the gunman, a troubled young man who grew up on a farm. The three hostages are Neil, a homeless man who sleeps rough in a nearby churchyard, Abi a young barrister who’s trying for a child with her partner, and Mutesi a carer in a nursing home. There are other hostages, but the novel focuses on these three. Finally, we have Eliza, a police negotiator with a marriage under strain from her work and her husband’s feelings of emasculation.
As the siege plays out, we see things from alternate perspectives and slowly learn more about each character. As with real life, they are all richer and deeper of character than they first appear, all more than their surface labels, and this impacts on how the siege will play out and what its outcome will be.
The Secrets of Strangers is a truly brilliant novel, beautifully written and very powerful. I’ll keep this review short, not because I have nothing to say or don’t want to divulge spoilers (though this latter aspect is true), but more because it really is something that should be discovered by the reader themselves. It’s a joy, albeit one often touched with sadness, to peel back the layers of these people and learn of the heartache that’s shaped them. They all have their triumphs and failures, and as the novel progresses we get to know them as truly three-dimensional characters.
This is a novel that will stay with me for a very long time and I can’t recommend it enough.
5 out of 5 stars
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