She Treads Softly: The Blue Hour

Thursday, September 26, 2024

The Blue Hour

The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins
10/29/24; 320 pages
HarperCollins

The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins is a highly recommended, atmospheric, even paced psychological thriller.

The late painter Vanessa Chapman has a retrospective at the Tate Modern when a forensics expert says a bone in one of her sculptures is a human bone. The Fairburn Foundation manages her estate and sends James Becker to Eris Island, where Chapman lived for the last decade of her life, to discuss the matter with her companion, Grace Haswell, who was willed the property and is the executor of Vanessa’s will. Admittedly, Grace has been hesitant to hand over all of Vanessa's papers, journals, and art work, causing a dispute between her and the foundation. The Scottish Eris Island has only one house on it and is accessible only twice a day, at low tide.

There are many characters, rumors, obsessions, and secrets introduced in the novel and all of them centers on the enigmatic artist. It is clear that not all hidden truths are meant to be uncovered and some may lead to danger. Chief among the secrets is the disappearance of Julian, the notoriously unfaithful husband of Vanessa who disappeared twenty years ago. The Lennox family behind the foundation has their own secrets, as does the island itself.

The writing is masterful. The narrative is written through multiple points-of-view and follows several timelines. Interspersed between chapters are excerpts from the artist’s journal entries. The island setting is part of the atmospheric novel. Expect dislikeable characters. The pace is even and slowly reveals insights into the characters along with a few surprises. Thanks to HarperCollins for providing me with an advance reader's copy via Edelweiss. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.