Review: Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry

Review: Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry

The story opens with Nora Lawrence arriving in Winshaw to visit her sister Rachel. She’s not surprised when Rachel isn’t at the station to meet her, and walks to Rachel’s house where she discovers the body of her sister’s German shepherd hanging from the banister. Upstairs she finds Rachel's body.

Nora takes us on a journey of overwhelming grief and discovery, drawing on the turbulent relationship with her sister. Nora’s behaviour and memories reveal a character who is manipulative, unreliable, obsessive and fuelled by internal conflict and jealousy. Her emotions are vivid and ominous, sensations we might recognise within ourselves but would not willingly admit to.

“When I first saw her, I started to cry and Rachel tilted her head at me. This was a second shock. Her eyes were so swollen I had thought they were closed and that she was asleep. Her appearance frightened me, like the bashed-up girl was the scary thing instead of what had happened to her.”

Nora appears delusional and unstable. She suspects everyone and becomes obsessed with a local man who she pursues with relentless impudence.

I am standing by the rill when Keith comes off the high street. We’re alone, though I can hear sounds from the Christmas market. I finger the straight razor I’ve started to carry, the sort of blade that before I only ever saw when a shop assistant used it to scrape the sticker from a bottle of wine.

“I’m keeping a log,” Keith says, “of every time you walk past my house and every time you follow me inside somewhere.”

“That seems odd,” I say. “It makes sense we’d run into each other in a small town.”

Although Flynn Berry is an American writer, her English settings are alive and captivating, though too perfect at times to have been described by a native Brit. However, whether it was Berry’s intention or not, Nora’s reflection of her and Rachel’s holiday to Cornwall, her regular visits to Rachel, and the fact that she’s transient in Rachel’s town as the murder investigation progresses, reflects the surreal feelings of being in a strange environment.

Nora’s feelings of loss and confusion are captivating as she peels away the layers in her determination to find the man who murdered her sister. Berry’s characters are disjointed and interesting. Short sharp sentences prod the reader toward a disturbing, though, in my opinion, somewhat disappointing conclusion.

Flynn Berry writes the way I like to read. Her use of perception to describe what her character feels is alluring. This compelling and riveting book comes highly recommended.