Review: Liza Costello’s Crookedwood
Crookedwood by Liza Costello. Hachette Ireland, 2022. €8.99, 310 pages.
This thriller, described by critics as containing ‘echoes of Tana French and Donal Ryan’, drew me in from the very opening line: “Weeks later pinned against the bracken floor by the weight of his body and knowing she’s about to die...”
Taking centre stage is Sarah Flynn, a twenty-something aspiring chef who hails from a fictitious rural Irish town by the name of Crookedwood (which is inspired, in name only, by an actual village in Westmeath). She is torn between familial loyalty and the expectations of her new partner when a controversial new planning development is proposed near the cottage in which she grew up.
From the outset, sinister forces seem to be at play, from unexplained disappearances to savage attack dogs. After a series of inexplicable events, Sarah cannot shake the feeling that something is just not right. Sarah seems to entertain two parallel lives: her job in Dublin in an upscale restaurant and the life she periodically returns to her birthplace of Crookedwood. This midlands community is portrayed by Costello as a place where secrets run rampant—some things are simply not openly discussed.
Sarah’s mother, Nancy, plays a central role in this story, and a spotlight is directed toward their complicated relationship as Sarah refuses to live up to her mother’s expectations, both in regard to her career and her stance on the planning development. Nancy is firmly opposed to it, but Sarah’s married paramour Neil is responsible for the development and asks for her public support.
I feel that Sarah’s character seems to develop as the novel progresses. As her world becomes more chaotic and she stumbles into a conspiracy far larger than she could ever imagine, one can begin to see a different, more determined aspect of her personality as she struggles to make sense of her reality. This artful character progression really adds to the novel.
The real intrigue in this novel only began to be revealed about halfway into the book. Costello focuses more on introducing characters and depicting Sarah’s everyday experience, which makes for a slow start. She also continually establishes the dichotomy in Sarah’s Dublin and Crookedwood life. Occasional flashbacks to Sarah’s childhood and teenage experiences provide vital context to her present-day relationships and eventually reveal one of the motives for the threats against her life.
Overall, I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a thriller in which the trajectories of characters’ lives are forever changed, deceit and long-kept secrets are revealed, with twists and turns that are impossible to predict. Costello manages to turn an innocuous planning development for a couple of houses into a situation in which lives hang in the balance and illegal schemes are brought to light.
