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The House on the Cliff A Novel Charlotte Williams 9780062284570 Books

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The House on the Cliff A Novel Charlotte Williams 9780062284570 Books

Very frustrating read as the protagonist psychoanalyst becomes unprofessional in her work life and irrational in her home life. Straight-forward writing with too many passages filled with mundane activity unrelated to continuing the story. The story, itself, wasn't complicated or mysterious, leading one to know that there was going to be one "twist" or otherwise this was a point-less novel (early on in the novel it emerges the cold-case murder was actually witnessed and murderer now identified) without any tension or mystery. It's readers of romance novels that may be the audience for this book.


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The House on the Cliff A Novel Charlotte Williams 9780062284570 Books Reviews

The advert for this novel touts itself as "Smart, stylish and suspenseful" when in fact "Puerile, passive and plodding" is spot on.

I am seriously ticked off with myself that I actually made it a little more than half way through this book with the wasted hope that at some point it would improve, before realizing the pages offered nothing more than repetition of how truly awful Jessica Mayhew is as a character and how egregiously inefficient Charlotte Williams is as a writer. (That Philosophy degree is proving to be a great anchor in holding down progressive development in thought.)

Jessica Mayhew is supposed to be a therapist with a successful practice but that is far from evident. She herself clearly suffers from a mild case of infantilism with a heavy dose of disdain for her patients and her family while inappropriately fantasizing and THEN acting on those fantasies of a much younger, decidedly dreary patient whose soul attraction is his objectified looks.

Jessica is remarkably spoiled yet passive. She is completely inactive and self repressive when it comes to dealing with her patients and family and can not be bothered to deal with them in a proactive way and is sloppy with how she handles her patient confidentiality. This results in her husband not only fooling around on her but taking advantage of information she relates to him on a patient for his own self promotion to ingratiate himself into a case. She withholds information and suspends belief on a pedophile putting her teenage daughter at risk, while letting both her daughters (awful, terrible children by the way, but with an upbringing from this mother completely understandable.) blatantly disrespect and lie to both her and her husband. And the cherry on the cake of her horrid self-important ineffectualism is when she is too bored by a patient to listen that the patient disengages with her and angrily walks out only to turn up later in the book having clearly resolved her issues on her own. Jessica's astounding response to this is to first be angry that the patient did not formally end her sessions which cost her income (most people would logically conclude an end with a walk out.) but then she arrogantly decides to take false credit for her former patient's success. WTF?!? The reader will not be able to believe their eyes.

And oh yes, there is supposed to be a bit of mystery here. Gwydion, the dishy young man who clearly has issues that go deeper than a fear of buttons and his inadvertent witnessing of a murder when he was a child is the thread for that. However this thread hits a result just short of halfway through the book. Jessica uses a half-assed interest in this to ingratiate herself into Gwydion's life and family which allows her to give the victim's long-suffering mother a false hope she has no real intention of alleviating. (unsympathetic laziness masquerading as patient confidentiality.) The real mystery is how long Jessica will have to prey on Gwydion before she finally get act out on her own immature sexuality.

So badly executed on every score. I actually remember a time 30-40 years ago when a real editor would have tossed this aside and refused to publish it.
When Gwydion Morgan hires Jessica Mayhew as his therapist, it's under the guise of treating a button phobia and insomnia he fears will hinder his burgeoning acting career. Gwydion is charming and attractive but soon confesses he's been dealing with another issue a recurring dream that reveals itself a bit more with each session. Jessica soon learns that a young woman died while working for the family when Gwydion was just a boy. As Gwydion recalls more and more of the dream, it soon becomes clear that it's linked to the woman's death and a secret the Morgan family has tried to keep under cover for many years now. Gwydion isn't Jessica's only concern either. Her own family is in turmoil as she faces the fact that her husband has recently cheated and her teenage daughter becomes entangled with one of Jessica's former clients.

This is apparently the first in a series that will feature Jessica Mayhew. It's just been released here in the States but was previously released in the UK.

This is a tough post to put together because while I know I can't possibly love or even like every book that I read, I still expect to love or at least like every book that I read. THE HOUSE ON THE CLIFF should have had everything necessary for me to like it - a UK psychological suspense debut described as "pacey" and "intriguing" by The Guardian. The publicity material even compared it to Daphne DuMaurier. With all of that in mind I'd started Charlotte Williams's debut with pretty high expectations, not the least of which comes with the new Bourbon Street Books brand.

Unfortunately the book just doesn't deliver on any of those counts. It was not very suspenseful, though the pacing was fine. Williams's writing over all was fine as well. Fine. Not wonderful, not particularly intriguing, and sadly not what I would expect at all from a psychological suspense or as the set up for a new crime series.

Jessica Mayhew comes across as a kind of lackluster therapist as well. I hate to say it, but the way her character is set up and the way things play out I was scratching my head the whole time wondering if a real therapist would react in the same ways and seemingly miss all of the various things going on around her.

THE HOUSE ON THE CLIFF was an unfortunate miss for me.
I could not put this book down. It was so intriguing and engulfing. Great read.
Very frustrating read as the protagonist psychoanalyst becomes unprofessional in her work life and irrational in her home life. Straight-forward writing with too many passages filled with mundane activity unrelated to continuing the story. The story, itself, wasn't complicated or mysterious, leading one to know that there was going to be one "twist" or otherwise this was a point-less novel (early on in the novel it emerges the cold-case murder was actually witnessed and murderer now identified) without any tension or mystery. It's readers of romance novels that may be the audience for this book.