Psychological thriller set in North London

31st December 2020

Playing Nice by J P Delaney, psychological thriller set in North London.

J P Delaney is one of those writers who always pens a good and ‘different’ story. For this novel he has clearly been inspired by the biblical story – The Judgement of Solomon – where King Solomon ruled between two women who both claimed to be the mother of a baby. They had both been living in the same house, each caring for her offspring, but one baby died. With great wisdom he threatened to cut the baby in two. In this way he could determine which mother was the actual birth mother, as the real mother suggested giving the baby to the other mother to preserve the baby’s life.

And so to the story. Pete and Maddie have a son Theo. His arrival into the world was a traumatic event, he was premature and rushed from the private hospital where Maddie had given birth, to an NHS hospital with a NICU (Newborn Intensive Care Unit). He is now two and seemingly thriving, despite his early difficulties. One day someone called Miles arrives with the explosive news that Theo is not their child. Miles has a child of the same age called David, who is very sickly and suffers disabilities; their babies got mixed up shortly after their birth; at this stage it is not known where and how. Pete can see Maddie in David, and similarly he can see elements of Theo in Miles. Pete seems easily convinced. It is from that point on – when Miles walks across the threshold of Pete and Maddie’s house with his devastating news – that I began to clasp my hands to my head and exhort Pete not to accept this news at face value. Why did he let Miles walk into his house? But I guess shock does strange things to people and they respond in unaccustomed and illogical ways.

It is all very genial, and Pete and Maddie invite Miles and his wife Lucy to be godparents to Theo. It’s all nicey nice but just something doesn’t feel quite right. The boundaries start to slip and soon matters take an uncomfortable turn when Theo starts being looked after by Miles and Lucy’s nanny, which on one level is a practical solution, but on another is really quite disturbing. As the story unfolds the discomfort ratchets up and social services start to get involved.

J P Delaney has also written as Anthony Capella, where I first found appreciation for this author’s writing style and storytelling. He also has penned the Carnivia Trilogy as Jonathan Holt, thrillers set in Venice. He always takes a theme and gives it a good tug so that it becomes a vibrant and original telling and his stories, created with knife edge precision, continue to be enthralling and just this side of credible.

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