When the last of her three children starts school our unnamed protagonist decides the time is ripe to rejoin the workforce. She gets a position at the local mall, as an undercover store detective - as a run-of-the-mill, middle-aged woman she's ideally invisible.
There are work-related mysteries, like why everyone else ignores the blatant thieving of a posh school girl, and the question of vote rigging in a local Boony Babes photo competition. But as she begins not only an association with local FM star Lindy-May but also a decades-old abandoned baby story, her life begins to ravel around the edges.
More than a typical mid-life chick lit novel, Undercover Mother is also less than both I hoped and less than it could have been. For a start the style is choppy, with entries the length and style of diary extracts and about as interesting. The central mystery, the identity of the mother of the long-ago abandoned baby, is hardly difficult to penetrate.
As a portrait of an average woman with unexpressed fears and concerns this is a workable effort. But I found it difficult to relate or warm to the heroine, and the surprise twist of her ending up in a psychiatric facility changed the tenor of the book without necessarily adding to it.
I suspect this is Thompson's first novel. There's another one in print, but I doubt I'll be rushing to it any time soon. - Alex
No comments:
Post a Comment