Sculptress

- By Minette Walters

I have to say, I have mixed feelings about this novel... while I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, it still left me slightly disappointed.

Rosalind Leigh is an author drowning in her own misery when her agent issues an ultimatum to find a story, like yesterday. Further to that, she is asked to write the story on Olive Martin, a convicted murderer.

Olive Martin is not easy to like. She is a heavy set woman, with fondness to eating and a temper like wild fire when riled. She lives in an unhappy house, with her mother, sister and homosexual father. On her birthday, having been disappointed with her family not throwing a party for her, she gets into an awful row with her mother and sister and finally hacks them with an axe and rearranges the pieces. Then suddenly, she finds a bout of compassion for her father and she does not want him to see the monstrosity that she committed and so, she confesses her crime to the cops. Her lawyers could do little to help her find a lenient verdict and she is sentenced to twenty five years of prison life.

In prison, she is called sculptress for the wax figurines she carves each day. During the arrest or the trail, nobody bothers to ask her as to why she committed the crime. Until now, when Rosalind visits her in prison, to find her side of the story. While Olive looks grotesque, she manages to make an impression on Rosalind which is quite contradictory to that of a psychopath capable of hacking people. And Rosalind wonders, if Olive Martin did commit the murders for which she was convicted. In her research to understanding more about Olive, Rosalind identifies a series of inconsistencies that makes her believe that Olive did not commit those murders. But, Olive insists that she did. Why?

The novel progresses with Rosalind's research, unraveling Olive's life in bits and pieces, each new piece adding more to the puzzle. Olive and Amber, her sister, have been inseparable growing up. So why did Olive kill her? No one seems to remember Olive exhibiting any wild or irrational behavior, yet she committed gruesome murders. Why? The cop who arrested her, found her talks to be non-threatening and yet, the violence found at the murder scene speaks loudly that he needs to be wary of her. And when Rosalind visits Olive in prison, she seems to be touched by her compassion for her misery. How can a person capable of compassion commit such heinous crimes?

As we reach ending, I personally felt that the novel went a bit flat. The pieces of the puzzle fall together to complete the picture, yet something is quite left unsaid. While I enjoyed the writing and the ease of story telling, I am dissatisfied with it, like just eating a spoon of ice-cream while the bowl of it is left untouched! Definitely savory, but not fulfilling.

Having said that, just for the thrill of reading a mystery, I would recommend this book.