Forgotten Book - Fearful Symmetry

I've mentioned Morag Joss a couple of times over the years. First, in relation to her excellent novel Half Broken Things (which gets a name-check in The Life of Crime) and the enjoyable TV adaptation of it and second when reviewing another of her novels of psychological suspense, The Night Following. As a writer, she is a class act. I've never met her, so I can't be sure of this, but my guess is that she finds writing crime fiction slightly constricting. And this may help to explain why she is far from prolific in the genre, despite having achieved considerable success.

I've now read her second novel about the cellist Sara Selkirk, Fearful Symmetry. It seems rather characteristic of Morag Joss's somewhat off-beat approach that her protagonist is a cellist and also that she opted for a title which is intriguing but unusual. This is definitely a crime novel, and Sara does plenty of amateur detecting (with mixed results) as well as collaborating with a policeman, Andrew, who just happens to be in love with her. I felt that in some respects Sara and Andrew were rather irritating, but in a sense that just illustrates the fact that they are well-rounded characters. As are most of the other key players in the story.

One of the great strengths of this novel is its wit - sometimes seasoned with irony. There's also some poignant writing. One character is on the autistic spectrum, a subject in which I've become very interested, and the presentation of autism is well handled, especially when one bears in mind that the book was published 25 years ago, when this complex condition was less well understood.

The opening scene is devastating. We are introduced to a single, retired woman called Imogen Bevan. She is respectable but unpleasant (and in fact she is quite harshly presented) and her unkind nosiness has truly shocking consequences. The investigation, led by Andrew, meanders for a long time, especially given that the reader knows something that the police don't know, and in the meantime we're introduced to Sara and an assorted bunch of people who become involved in a community opera project. A successful but vain composer is portrayed with biting satire, as is another, rather less renowned composer. And eventually a second shocking death occurs. Again the inquiry is handled in a rather desultory way but the finale is gripping and memorable. 

This was Morag Joss's second crime novel and it isn't without flaws. The digressions are wonderfully written, but there are a lot of them, and the balance between story development, characterisation, and discussion of music, is uneven, which affects the pace adversely. But even though some aspects of life have changed a lot in the quarter-century since this book first appeared, it remains true that good writing is good writing. And there is a plenty of that in Fearful Symmetry, as well as a story that I think will linger in my mind.