Circle of Doubt

 

Set in the fictional town of Forest Grove, the story centers on Dele and Emma Okoru, the adoptive parents of ten-year old daughter, Isla. As Emma struggles with insecurities about her personality and mothering abilities, especially as the white mother of a mixed race daughter, these are intensified when the rich, glamorous new couple, architect Lawrence and fashion designer Tatjana Belafonte, move to the village. Emma is quick to notice that Tatjana, who is black, looks like a matured version of Jade Dixon, the seventeen year old, heroin-addicted girl who gave birth to Isla. When Tatjana takes a particularly keen interest in Isla and mysterious events start happening that call into question Emma’s character and mothering skills, Emma is firmly convinced that Tatjana is actually Jade returned to take Isla away from her.

The story is told in a dual narrative. In one there’s the unreliable narrator Emma, who is sharing the daily unfolding of events, as she struggles to fit into the mean girl, catty mom culture of Forest Grove, where her every action is handled by the judge and jury panel of ladies who are members of the Mums of Forest Grove Facebook Group, which Emma doesn’t belong to. We also find out she has a hidden, mysterious past that she fears could threaten her custody of Isla, were it to come to light. In the other narrative, we have a series of inner monologue style “letters” to Isla, where someone clearly intent on getting Isla back unfolds their plan, while disparaging Isla’s “fake” parents. Each effort to undermine Emma is explained in a birds-eye view by this person, creating the unsettling feeling of how far they might go to get what they want, as the story shows them upping the ante with each new action against her.

The story does an excellent job of creating the dynamic tension between characters and displaying the fickle allegiances of various members of the community, especially the ladies. Those women are simultaneously awful and awesome. It was well-paced, suspenseful, and the main characters, at least, felt fully formed. The plot was intriguing, and the story did a great job of showing Emma’s isolation in her increasing desperation to prove her theory to her loving, but skeptical husband and others, that Tatjana really is Jade and that she really is plotting against her. There were two fantastic twists that I didn’t see coming at all - and both really elevated the story for me.

One minor issue that was mildly irritating is Buchanan’s borderline comical overuse of exclamation points. Really - the majority of them weren’t necessary and gave the writing a more amateurish feel than it should have had. Oh … and this particular gem of writing:

“The large window looking towards the garden was smashed, glass shattered on the carpet, the blinds covering the window tangled and broken. Lying among the glass was a boulder from the rockery outside.

Somebody must have thrown it through the window!”

Barring a rock sprouting wings, I’m fairly certain that could have been deduced without need of telling me, but hey … to each their own.

All in all, I had a lot of fun with this one and enjoyed it thoroughly!

★★★★

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. #CircleofDoubt #NetGalley