A thriller that does indeed thrill

  • Book: Silent Saturday
  • Location: Brussels, Tervuren
  • Author: Helen Grant

Location

Content

This excellent young adult thriller is an object lesson in how to write a novel. A real novel, not just a prose work of a certain length. A novel needs substance, ideas, an insight into character, and above all a real sense of humanity. Silent Saturday possesses all of these.

The plot is fairly simple. A serial killer called De Jager – the Hunter – is preying on young women in Flanders. Some of his victims belong to an internet group whose members illegally enter interesting buildings, not to steal, but for the sheer thrill of transgression. The novel’s heroine, Veerle, encounters Kris, a member of the group, by chance. It transpires that Kris and Veerle have history as children they witnessed a horrific murder, an incident Veerle simply can’t remember.

As the story develops Veerle’s feelings for Kris grow stronger – this is, to some extent, a story of first love, without being tacky or indeed very explicit. But at the same time the pair cross paths, unwittingly, with De Jager during their urban adventures. Eventually there is a showdown, one in which Veerle’s courage and resourcefulness are tested to destruction. Earlier events have prepared the reader for what transpires, but it’s still old school, white-knuckle stuff.

Running alongside the thriller plot is a domestic drama, in which Veerle clashes with her manipulative and clinging mother, Claudine. Claudine’s isolation and (possibly exaggerated) illness represent the ‘safe’ world, one that Veerle is understandably keen to escape. The author makes Veerle a thoroughly sympathetic character, but gives her enough of a bolshie streak to keep her believable. The irony is that Claudine is right – the outside world is a terrifying, dangerous place. But, as Veerle knows, it’s also the only world we have, and we only have one life to live in it.

As this is the first novel in a trilogy I assume that further revelations about De Jager (and perhaps other characters) are in store.

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