Black Cat Book

"How do you know what any man is capable of?": in his new thriller, Black Cat, Martyn Bedford's takes that question into the realms of contemporary (urban) myth. The rumour of a black panther, stalking its prey on the moors, is the starting point for a curious relationship between Chloe Fortune--a wild child who doesn't "fit in", a dowsing anti-roads protestor whose transatlantic telephone calls with "mom" are one of the highlights of the novel--and the mysterious Ethan, one-time local housing officer turned hermit-hunter. Told from multiple perspectives--speeches and interviews from a variety of "witnesses" who reflect back on whatever it is that has happened between Chloe and Ethan on the moors--Black Cat sustains a genuine sense of mystery and threat (one that it does not necessarily resolve). Like the critically-acclaimed The Houdini Girl, this novel is clever--knowing in its depiction of lives lived on the edges of respectability and impressive in its rendering of a range of different voices and characters. Independent, wayward, unpredictable, Chloe's emerges as the dominant, and engaging, voice--as is clear from the very beginning of the novel in her exchange with an unsavoury reporter: "Gavin: 'How did you learn to dowse?' Chloe: 'Because no-one ever told me I couldn't.'" In this sense, the violence that unfolds towards the end of the book comes as a shock that is crucial to the suspense, and success, of this whimsical tale. Vicky LebeauRead More