A Room Swept White by Sophie Hannah

Paperback:  456 pages

Genre:  Psychological thriller

Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton 2010

Source: Oxfam Charity Bookshop in the UK

Review Quote: 'Tension thy name is Sophie Hannah' The Independent.

First Sentence: Part I : I am looking at numbers when Laurie phones, numbers that mean nothing to me.

My opinion: The numbers calling card was clever!

I have followed Sophie Hannah's writing for about the last four years and this is the sixth of her novels that I have read, so there is no doubt that I find her work very readable. Psychological thrillers are not my favourite genre but as her books are ones that my husband will read as well, we always pick them up if we come across them on our travels.

This is the author's fifth novel to feature Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer as part of the police team investigating the case. It does not matter though if you have not read her previous novels as apart from the reappearance of some of the characters in the police force the main theme of the story is unconnected. The only thing you will have missed out on is the changing relationship between Simon and Charlie, by the way the Charlie is female for those of you that might be wondering.

I finished reading ' a room swept white' not having solved the puzzle for myself, a good sign that the book kept me guessing all the way to the end. The numbers calling card was very clever and I was impressed without what it turned out to mean!

As in her previous novels the story unfolds in the two parallel stories, in the first person by the female protagonist Fliss Benson, a young TV producer who has been given the job of directing a documentary about women accused of killing their babies. The other story concerns the police investigation keeping the reader informed of all that is happening, the murder being investigated is of Helen Yardley one of the women due to appear in the proposed documentary. While Fliss is working on the case with the remaining women there is another murder committed and she begins to feel that maybe she is in danger herself. To find out if Fliss was right to be worried you will have to read the book for yourself.

In her usual indubitable style of writing Sophie Hannah has written yet another sometimes muddling and complicated plot, you need to concentrate, well I did anyway. The social dilemmas of 'cot death' are extremely well coped with and gave me a lot to think about. If you enjoy a novel that makes you think and can cope with the fact that the subject matter can be distressing, then I can recommend this one to you.

Author Profile

The biographical information used today is courtesy of her Official Website

Sophie Hannah is the author of six internationally bestselling psychological thrillers – Little Face, Hurting Distance, The Point of Rescue, The Other Half Lives, A Room Swept White and Lasting Damage. Her novels are published in 20 countries, with more foreign rights deals under negotiation.The Other Half Lives was short-listed for the 2010 Independent Booksellers’ Book of the Year Award and is currently short listed, under its US title The Dead Lie Down, for a Barry Award.  Little Face and Hurting Distance were both longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, and Little Face was longlisted for the IMPAC Award. The Point of Rescue, Sophie’s first thriller to be adapted for television, will be broadcast on ITV1 in May under the series title Case Sensitive.

In 2004, Sophie won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition for her suspense story The Octopus Nest, which is now published in her first collection of short stories The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets.

Sophie has also published five collections of poetry. Her fifth, Pessimism for Beginners, was shortlisted for the 2007 TS Eliot Award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE, A-level and degree level across the UK. From 1997 to 1999 she was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, and between 1999 and 2001 she was a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. She is thirty-nine and lives with her husband and children in Cambridge, where she is a Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College.

I have featured Sophie Hannah on this blog more than once and reviewed her earlier novels, although the earlier ones just on Bookcrossing as it was before I started LindyLouMac's Book Reviews .  Please click on the title links below to read my earlier reviews. 

Cordial and Corrosive  Bookcrossing review

Little Face  Bookcrossing review.

Hurting Distance  Reviewed on this blog in 2010.

Point of Rescue  Reviewed on this blog in 2010.   Now published as The Wrong Mother.

The Other Half Lives  Reviewed on this blog in 2011.

The biographical information and photo used in this post are with thanks to the following websites, where you can also find more information about the author and her writing.

Sophie Hannah Official Website,  Amazon Profile,    Goodreads - Author Profile.

I have chosen to read this title as the letter R for The A - Z Book Challenge which I have decided to attempt to achieve in alphabetical order. I have a good selection of titles to choose from our bookshelves, it will be interesting to see how far I can get before I get stuck. You can follow my progress here.