Harriet Cummings

Harriet Cummings' debut is one of those suffocating novels where nothing really happens - the action is either a past mystery to unravel or a vague future threat to come - and the reader is left with a group of unsympathetic characters to pass the time. In this case, we get a possible intruder in a sleepy village and a missing woman. You could argue that the missing woman represents the drama, but she became so annoyingly perfect in absentia - long-suffering, friend to all, visited the sick, taught the young - that I was actually glad she was gone. And the characters left behind to talk about her - a teen bride, dodgy lay reader, put upon constable, and cross-dressing husband - were equally unappealing. Brian the plod came closest to redeeming the cast, but even he was rather uninspiring.

Based on true events recalled from the author's childhood, the plot should have been stronger, I feel. Someone is sneaking into people's houses - and this being the 80s, there are few locked doors or alarms - but only to watch the inhabitants and take the odd personal memento. Is it a stranger or a member of their own community? Everyone has a dirty little secret that they don't want their neighbours to discover, of course, but the disappearance of saintly Anna turns the looming threat into high melodrama. In one scene, the whole village gathers like something out of a zombie film to hound a potential suspect with a chorus of 'Where's Anna? Where's Anna?' ('Who cares? Who cares?' was my response.)

The 80s setting sort of drifts out of focus after the first few chapters with Deloris the Madonna wannabe too, relying on 'Hey, do you remember the TV test card and cassette tapes?' type references. (And the Macarena was popular in the 90s, not the 80s.) Really, the oppressive atmosphere of the 'long hot summer' is timeless, from Agatha Christie to the modern day - which probably wouldn't bother most readers, but I chose this story for the nostalgia, so the lack of detail just added to the overall 'Meh' impact of the novel.… (meer)

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free advance copy of this title in return for an honest review.

We Begin As Strangers is inspired by the intriguing real-life criminal known as "the Fox" entered people's homes, rearranging objects, opening doors and, with thriller-worthy eeriness, building dens from which to watch the occupants. This sense of being watched is deeply unsettling and it's immediately clear why tales of this individual would continue to resonate with Cummings today. Unfortunately, the unease is quite soon dispelled in this fictional version of the Fox's career.

The story is related from 4 viewpoints, all residents of the village, from newly-married, newly-arrived Deloris to Brian the local policeman whose investigation takes a more urgent turn when shy Anna vanishes from her home. While the shifting perspective allows Cummings to ask what we can truly know about our neighbours the characters simply were not compelling enough to hold my interest. Many of their secrets were predictable or cliched and as the story moved on I found myself comparing it to the stock characters and small-town melodrama of Midsomer Murders, but without the tongue-in-cheek tone that makes you willing overlook these flaws.

Beginning the narrative with Deloris was probably a mistake, she's fairly dull and unsympathetic and squandered a good deal of my good will before I got to the more interesting sections of her neighbours. However, the rapid breakdown of relations as the residents turned on each other was well-observed and the early scenes where the Fox's intrusion were first discovered were genuinely disconcerting, a little more focus on the nature of his character and a little less on the narrators could have lifted an average novel into something a little more engaging.… (meer)

It is the Summer of 1984 and in the village of Heathcote things are not what they should be. Someone appears to be breaking into houses and taking things, only small things but it disquiets the residents. Then one day sweet, quiet Anna disappears and suddenly the actions of 'The Fox' take a sinister turn, has he kidnapped her or worse? These events bring to the surface secrets involving many of the residents from the frustrated newly-wed Deloris to the repressed Stan.

I found this book quite hard going for the first part until I settled into the gentle rhythm of the writing. There is no great sensationalism the the writing but it lulls the reader with its gentleness so that the events and the revelations are not shocking, they just feel logical and part of the narrative. Although this book is based on a true case, the original Fox was an altogether more unpleasant character and whilst that would have been an interesting story, it would not work in the cadence of this novel. Even the unpleasant twist at the end is played so delicately that one almost doesn't realise what is actually happening. I was really impressed by this book.… (meer)

This book had great appeal for me as soon as I heard about it. Based around a true story of somebody who, in 1984, crept into people's homes and observed them and sometimes kept a little souvenir of their visit, I loved the premise of a community dealing with such an unusual situation.

I don't know why but I thought Anna, the person that goes missing during the fox's reign of terror, was going to be a child so I was a bit surprised when she turned out to be a fully grown woman. The community comes together to an extent as they deal with the events of the hot summer but yet there is a sense of mistrust as it could easily be any one of them.

The main characters are Deloris, Jim, Stan and Brian really. I liked Deloris. As the book starts she is watching Dallas and it took me right back to the era. She mentions having a video recorder and I remember clearly us getting our first one. There's a real sense of time, place and atmosphere in this book.

Actually, I liked Jim, Stan and Brian too. All have flaws but all are essentially good people. I did find it very hard to put ages on the characters, somehow expecting them all to be older than they eventually seemed to be. I don't know if I was missing something or whether the author intended to be quite mysterious about certain facts.

With the fox at large the book had a sinister undertone which freaked me out a bit reading with just a night light at bedtime. I kept hearing noises and in my mind it was the fox him or herself. It definitely had an impact on me!

As with lots of books based around true stories I think the author was constrained a little by trying to weave real life events into the story but overall it worked well. It's been billed as similar to The Trouble With Goats and Sheep, Elizabeth is Missing and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and I think that's accurate although We All Begin as Strangers has a darker feel to it.

This is an intriguing and well constructed story of a small village community who don't know each other as well as they think they do. We do all indeed begin as strangers.… (meer)