start.
‘Don’t be silly,’ she says. She opens the car door before she can stop herself.
‘Megan. Wait.’
She shuts it again.
‘What should I say to her?’
‘What?’
‘When I see her. What should I say to her?’
She would dismiss it as a foolish question. But she knows, having been there, that it is not.
‘She’s studying, you know: catching up,’ Megan says. ‘She wants to be a lawyer.’ She slightly overplays her disdain. ‘So you could tell her, for starters, to get a proper job.’
Leo, clearly, does not get the joke. He is staring again; working himself, she can tell, into a state.
Megan checks the clock again. She sighs. She says, ‘Leo,’ and taps her watch and then gestures through the windscreen towards…
Her daughter.
Their daughter.
Both.
‘Go.’
He does not move.
‘Go. Leo!’
She leans. She opens his door. ‘Go,’ she says again. ‘Go ahead.’
Because she was right that this was right. She can see, with her own eyes: her daughter with her hand across her mouth; her husband, standing, trying to, hauling himself up by the door frame of the car. He takes a step. She does. And Megan watches as her family comes together.
Also by Simon Lelic
RUPTURE
THE FACILITY
Acknowledgements
Love and thanks, as ever, to my unfailingly supportive family and friends. For their help and insight during the research and writing of this book, I owe a debt in particular to Sandra Higgison, Darryl Hobden, Andy Hood, Hanne Stevens and Amanda Thornton. Without their collective generosity, in terms of time and expertise, I would still be staring at a blinking cursor. Thank you, equally, to all at Macmillan, Penguin, the Zoe Pagnamenta Agency, Andrew Nurnberg Associates and Felicity Bryan Associates. Emma Bravo, Kathryn Court, Sophie Orme, Zoe Pagnamenta, Maria Rejt, Tara Singh and Caroline Wood all deserve an extra special mention.
I would like, as well, to detail here the books that have most informed and guided my research for
Last, and above all, I would like to say thank you to Sarah, my wife, and to my two sons, Barnaby and Joseph: for being there, and for being who they are.
Review
‘Three possible candidates for the Granta U.K. class of 2013 are Ned Beauman, Joe Dunthorne and Simon Lelic. Lelic’s three novels are breakneck, intelligent ’social thrillers’ that even invade my dream-life.’
‘Could this be Lelic’s breakthrough book? It deserves to be.’
‘Quietly excellent legal thriller.’
‘An excellent psychological crime thriller from one of the genre’s rising stars… Zest, fresh perspective, insight and often quite beautiful writing, something you rarely see in populist thriller fiction… Lelic’s gift is for immediately unsettling the reader. Just who is narrating this? Who are these people? Where is this going? This wrong-footing isn’t just gimmicky, however. It’s an essential thread in the weave of this excellent novel… Much of the joy of this book is about the disorientating nature of Lelic’s story-telling… bewitching.’
‘Lelic was marked for stardom by his first two thrillers, Rupture and The Facility, and he confirms his place at the literary top table with this, his third… Told with compelling force, and at considerable pace, it reveals the frightening law of unintended consequences: even a good man can be destroyed by the best intentions.’
‘Fantastic. Absorbing, moving, hugely gripping.’
‘Could this be Lelic’s breakthrough book? It deserves to be.’
‘Gripping… Lelic, author of the highly acclaimed Rupture, unpicks the layers of vengeance, exploitation and fear that accrue around children that kill, and examines the terrible fall-out for anyone who goes against the vindictive current… a compelling, thought-provoking page-turner.’
