Unravelling spectacularly

DAYS roll by and winter is coming to an end. I measure my life in pages read. I will tell you about two new novels, domestic thrillers – one from America and one from England.

This is a delightful domestic noir in the vein of the TV series The Office. Anyone who has ever worked for a corporation and been caught up in office politics will recognise the scenario.

Jolene, whose mother emigrated from Iran to America in search of a better life, was scarred early on when her best schoolfriend died. Jolene found the body and fingers were pointed at her. Moreover, the expectations of her parents are pressing heavily on her. She has to live their dream. She has an administrative position in an uninspiring office among hostile colleagues. She doesn't socialise with them, never goes out and drinks hopelessly too much, alone in her cluttered apartment.

Then a new HR guy is appointed. He notices her but she ignores his advances, cynical and sarcastic. And through a technical glitch, she suddenly has access to the entire office's email. She reads private messages and knows far too much about all her colleagues. She decides to use the information to get the promotion her mother keeps hoping for.

In the process, she also begins to see her colleagues as people: bored, frustrated and despondent people with dreams and yearnings, who tell lies in order to look the world in the face, who suffer from unbearable pain. Something is starting to change in Jolene.

It's funny, inflammatory and subversive. Moreover, it is a tender and eccentric love story. I have only one question: in which world, except on paper, does the sweet, steadfast hero show up at the heroine's apartment after she caves in, surrendering to booze and takeaway food for days. Her tracksuit is dirty, her hair is greasy, she stinks, the whole apartment is full of dirty clothes, greasy takeaway containers and liquor bottles, and he realises that he loves her. I'm glad there's such a world, if only on paper.

I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue was published by HarperCollins and costs R356 at Graffiti.

Another delightful domestic noir in the vein of the novel and TV series Big Little Lies. Like 11-year-old girls and thuggish school bullies, ambitious young stay-at-home moms who meet every day in 4x4s at the school gate are a nest of vicious vipers. There are cliques and alliances, gossip campaigns, lies and suspicion.

Beth, like Jolene in the previous book, is an outsider. She is divorced after one of the mums, her ex-friend Jade, stole her husband. The other mothers condemn her for cursing like a sailor – in front of the children. Her own three often overwhelm her. She doesn't have as much money as the other moms and she drinks too much.

She hasn't been herself since her friend Charlotte died under mysterious circumstances. She was also one of the school moms. Beth decides  Charlotte was murdered and that she is going to apprehend the killer. She can think the clearest, access most memories and come to the soundest conclusions when she hits the bottle. The problem is that she can't remember any of her insights the next day. So, she writes things down sloppily and incoherently. She draws complex diagrams.

It soon becomes clear that there are things the school moms want to keep quiet and that Beth is scratching where it doesn't itch. Almost all of them had an axe to grind with Charlotte. Then another mum dies, in Beth's house at that.

It's strangely satisfying to read how an intelligent, sensitive person completely unravels and finally starts picking up the pieces of herself. It's funny as well as tense. I highly recommend it.

The Dead Friend Project by Joanna Wallace was published by Viper and costs R315 at Graffiti.

What are we listening to?

The Office theme song:

♦ VWB ♦

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