These Women - Ivy Pochoda

Fiction/Crime

Rating: 9/10

Consider for a moment that you answered a question that no one had asked. 

This unconventional and ingeniously structured crime novel probes whom we listen to and why, and whose voices and stories are deemed worthy of being heard. It upends our assumptions, causes us to bristle at the shadows and shatters any remaining youthful bravado we may have been clinging to.

Told from the perspectives of six very different women who are unaware of the deadly serial killer that links them to one another.

There’s Dorian, adrift after her daughters murder remains unsolved; Julianna, a young dancer living hard and fast; Essie, a brilliant cop who sees patterns no one else does; Marella, an artist whose pushing of boundaries puts her in peril; and Anneke, a women who refuses to see the responsibility of her inertia. And another I will not name so as not to give anything away.  It’s the voices of these women who bring to life this triumphant display of storytelling.

The author does an impressive job of weaving together the threads that connect these women to each other and the killer without ever taking the straight line.  I don’t often find myself flipping back pages to resituate myself in the story, but willing did so here to ensure I didn’t miss a beat!

Footnote: More chilling than any abhorrent actions of the killer lurking in the periphery of this novel is the ease with which he able to commit these sins, and against whom.