Appearances can be deceptive. I like to explore movies and books where this saying holds sway. And yes, I have read some interesting novels based on the same. It's been quite a while since I read any such book and I recently came across this one. The book has been in my Kindle for over a year and recuperating from a bad case of fever, I finally settled to read this book.
Rhoda Penworth, the only daughter of Christine and Kenneth Penmark is the perfect eight-year-old girl any parent can ask for. She is polite, obedient and intelligent which is beyond her age. Kenneth is away from the family due to work while Christine and Rhoda live in Benedict. The book starts with a field trip from Rhoda's school which resulted in the death of a young boy in Rhoda's class. The case was dismissed of any suspicions as everyone thought it was a case of drowning. But is that so? Behind all the good girl images, Rhoda's mother Christine has her suspicions. Her seemingly perfect daughter has a side that no one knows. She lacks conscience and is a self-centred sociopath who can go to any extreme to get what she wants. As days go by, Christine learns more and more about her daughter's character while at the same time finding out that her mother was a serial killer. Has Rhoda committed the crime? If true, how will Christine deal with it in the absence of Kenneth? Is Rhoda on the way to follow her grandmother's infamous legacy forms the story?
Even though centred around Rhoda, the story travels mostly through Christine's view. The author does not delve into Rhoda's mind or tell the story from her POV. But that worked for me. It was interesting to see the story unfold from the perspective of a third person and in this case, it was mostly through her mother. The story was well-paced and there were no lags. Only a limited number of characters are there, among whom, the caretaker Leroy and the Neighbour Monica come throughout the story. Between these four characters, we can see entirely different and contrasting characters. I could not help but feel sorry for Christine. The character is left in a helpless situation throughout the book and the author has done a great job developing it. She plays the totally hapless mother who cannot deduce what needs to be done. Her mental agony and confusion create a sense of tension in the reader and we might tend to sympathise with the character. What starts as a doubt sown in her mind escalates to self-reproach by the end of the book. Equally interesting and irritating were LeRoy and Monica. It was amusing to see how LeRoy tends to irritate the characters and us as well. Coming to the main character Rhoda, we never get to know herself from a first-hand experience. All that is told about Rhoda is a part of the plot or from her mother's thoughts. But still, it throws some much light on her character which tends to cringe and scare us to some extent. I would not say this is a mystery genre novel but still the plot was able to keep me engaged. The language was simple enough but some portions could have been avoided. The plot is pretty predictable from the start but I liked the climax portion.
In short, an interesting one-time read. Readers who like the psychological POV will enjoy the book. There have been a couple of movie adaptations of the same but I am not sure how good they are.
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