The Bed I Made
By Lucie Whitehouse
Bloomsbury, $38.99
Reviewed by Nicky Pellegrino

Lucie Whitehouse had a hit with her debut novel The House at Midnight a psychological thriller that owed a lot to Donna Tartt’s famous best-seller The Secret History. Tartt of course turned out to be something of a one-hit wonder, failing to produce anything to match it (although another book is in the works) and so naturally I wondered whether Whitehouse might find herself falling pray to the same second-novel problems. Happily The Bed I Made is as sinister and suspenseful as anyone could hope for. In many ways this story is the diametric opposite of The House at Midnight which was about the dynamics of a group of friends in a deliciously creepy country house. Here we have a girl alone – Kate who has fled London and her stalky ex-boyfriend and is hiding in an old coastguards cottage on the Isle of White.

Kate’s hermit-like existence could easily result in dreary reading – and indeed there are a lot of lonely walks and pointless drives to fill in time while Whitehouse unfolds the back-story of Kate’s reckless and passionate affair with sexy, powerful property developer Richard. But fortunately there’s a second, present-day strand to the plot to keep the suspense thrumming - a local woman Alice Frewin has gone missing from her boat and Kate, among the last to talk to her, becomes fascinated by her world.

Whitehouse uses a lot of wintry weather to build her brooding atmosphere and at times this is over-done. I also felt some of Kate’s new connections and friendships seemed forced, and the romantic aspect of the book not as credible as it might be.
But the story of how love turns to fear is a compelling one and Whitehouse does a great job with it soaking the pages with passion and threat in equal measure. The last quarter of the story is especially gripping and I stayed up much too late, caught up by the drama and racing towards the climax.
There are a lot of really rubbishy, badly done thrillers out there so thank goodness for writers like Lucie Whitehouse.


Booklover
Bev Killick is an Australian comedian

The book I love most is… the self-help book You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay. I came across it and keep going back to it. It’s been a real eye opener into disease and how you can help free yourself from it through meditation and affirmations. In terms of fiction, I love Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and want to pick it up again. I love the Arthurian legend and couldn’t put this book down.

The book I’m reading now is.. Catherine Deveny’s new book Free to a Good Home. Catherine is a Melbourne journalist and quite a forthright writer – she really does slap you in the face with words. I’ve also just finished All That Happened At Number 26 by Melbourne comedian Denise Scott. Eventually I’d like to write my own book so I like to see what styles are out there. Denise’s book gives a great insight into how she got where she has in stand-up comedy. I know Denise so can hear her voice telling the story.

The book I’d like to read next is… one which keeps popping up in conversations. Just about every day someone reminds me that I need to read We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. It’s a book set around a fictional school massacre from the perspective of the killer’s mother and is written as a series of letters to her husband as she tries to come to terms with her son Kevin and the murders he committed. I was going to borrow it from the library, but I never know where I’ll be for any length of time, so I’ll buy it and pass it on.

*Bev Killick stars in Busting Out! which heads to New Zealand on an 18 centre tour from Auckland to Invercargill in February and March.

Footnote:
Nicky Pellegrino, in addition to being a succcesful author of popular fiction, (her latest The Italian Wedding was published in May 2009 while her next, Recipe for Life is due from Orion in April), is also the Books Editor of the Herald on Sunday where the above review and Booklover piece were first published on 7 February..