As soon as I read the blurb for Deborah O'Connor's latest, The Captive, I knew I wanted to read it. I was delighted to be invited onto the blog tour by Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers. Thanks also to the publisher for my review copy - I raced through it in a couple of days. You can read my thoughts further down the page.
The Blurb:
The cage is installed in Hannah’s kitchen. Small, the size of a shopping centre parking space. A bed, a basin, a table and chair. A hatch and metal drawer through which to exchange food and other items.
Then there's him. Always there on the edges of her vision, no matter how hard she tries to block him out.
Every day, the same thoughts run through Hannah's mind:
What if he speaks to me?
What if he hurts me?
What if he gets out?
In a near-future justice system Jem, the murderer of Hannah’s husband, arrives at her home to serve out his twenty-year sentence in a cell. There it’s hoped he will learn the true cost of his terrible crime.
But Jem tells Hannah he’s innocent, and not only that, her husband had been lying to her. Soon Hannah begins to question everything she thought she knew. Was Jem wrongly convicted? Or is he simply a desperate man, willing to say and do anything that might grant his freedom?
Only he can unlock the truth. Only she can set him free.
The Captive was published by Zaffre Books on 22nd December 2020 in e-book and audio formats, and on 7th January 2021 in hardback.
My Review:
In an unspecified time in the near future the penal system has been reformed and restorative justice has been taken to the extreme. Perpetrators of crimes have to serve our their sentence in a cage placed in the busiest part of their victims' homes, in order for them to see the impact that their actions have on the victims.
Jem has been found guilty of murdering Hannah's husband John and is to serve out his twenty year sentence in Hannah's kitchen. She bakes and decorates cakes for a living so spends much of her time in there. She struggles with the idea of having this man, who she feels ruined her life, in her house, every day, for what seems like forever, and applies for him to be moved (there are certain circumstances when this is allowed) unsure whether her request will be granted. In the meantime, she must make the best of this awful situation. Jem protests his innocence, but he would do anyway, wouldn't he? But what if he's right? Hannah decides she must learn about the events leading up to John's death, and discovers far more than she bargained for.
This is such an original idea. I loved the notion of the offender seeing first hand the impact of their crime. But for twenty years? This is a huge burden for the victim, or 'host' and to me it felt like more of a punishment for them. The number of cases taken to court has dropped under this new system for that very reason - most people don't want a criminal in their house, even if he or she is in a cage! The possible toll it can have is evident in the host living close to Hannah. But I loved seeing how Hannah and Jem interact as they navigate this strange new living set up.
Hannah is a lovely character and easy to warm to. She is obviously kind and caring, as demonstrated in her exchanges with her elderly neighbour. I loved the passages when she is preparing and icing her cakes, the care and attention she pays to them, wee calm moments amidst the chaos. She feels quite isolated, not seeing her best friend as much as she would like, and not getting the support she needs from John's former colleagues who are trying to process their own grief.
Jem is a much more complex character. He comes across as calm, polite, kind even, and seems to do what he can to make it as easy as possible for Hannah to deal with having him in her house. He never causes any trouble in his mandated shower and exercise times, and pretty much seems to be a model prisoner. But although I wanted to trust him, I couldn't quite bring myself to, always wondering what, if any, his agenda was - which I'm sure was the aim of the author.
The story is told mainly from Hannah's point of view in the third person with parts from Jem's points of view - his chapters are in the first person. I welcomed the opportunity to learn more about Jem's life and how it had reached this point. And Hannah too - we learn plenty about her, as she does about herself. I loved the author's attention to detail, whether it be sugar figurines, the actions of Hannah's confused neighbour, the derelict house near one of Hannah's clients or a tent in a garden. But also her study of feelings and emotions, Hannah's particularly, and the extremes she experiences.
The Captive has at its heart a crime, but it takes us, and the protagonists, on quite a journey as the author explores that with us, and I couldn't wait to see where we ended up. The denouement was unexpected for me, and there were several moments reading it where I held my breath. Original, imaginative and enjoyable.
The Author:
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