Country: Canada
Genre: Crime
Pages: 352
Synopsis:
It's an understatement that Lily Moore, successful travel writer, comes from humble beginning. Her drive to achieve is fueled by the desire to leave her old life and all its drama behind. After losing her parents in tragic fashion, she's losing her sister little by little to heroin. So she leaves for Barcelona, hoping to seal herself from her sister's impending doom, but the news of her death brings her back to New York. But is Claudia really dead? The women found dead in her apartment sure isn't her, though. So where is she? Is she still playing game with her sister or did something bad happened to her?
Claudia let go then, and I fell backward into the hallway."I hope you drop dead", she said, then she kicked my feet out the doorway and slammed the door. I lay there, staring at the ceiling for a minute before I'd gotten up and stumbled down the stairs. I'd run from the building, swearing to myself I'd never go back. Now, lying in Jesse's bathtub, I was sure that my sister has deliberately lured me back into her web. I was trapped as surely as if her hands were closing around my throat.
A long time ago, I heard a hip-hop song on MTV that sampled an off-key pan flute loop. I'm not sure where the sample came from, but it was beautiful. There was no doubt the instrument was played out of key, but by doing so, it accessed sounds that a pan flute can't usually access. Something more visceral, emotional. THE DAMAGE DONE, by Hilary Davidson, reminded me of this song. I knew from her short stories that Davidson is a pinpoint accurate writer, but her first full-length novel goes beyond simple accuracy. It taps into something unexplored, a point inside a continuum in between the lean prose of Lawrence Block, the elaborate mysteries of Rex Stout and the sophisticated settings of Arthur Conan Doyle. THE DAMAGE DONE is accurate, inspired and original.
The debut novel of Hilary Davidson features an impressive cast, but it's how they clash into each other that creates the beauty. Since the Moore sisters are both clinging to a better life, their bleak past and their sophisticated present meet in THE DAMAGE DONE. The past is represented by the cops Bruxton and Renfrew, as the present is seen through characters like Claudia's old boyfriend Tariq, Lily's old boyfriend Martin and ex-neighbor Sarah. The cops dig mercilessly into Lily's past, hoping to find something to further their investigation and find out things she kept to herself for very long. Davidson does this with a lot of subtlety. There is a lot of hints and unsaid to Lily's behavior. It's a beauty to read how defensive she gets around people who spend their days amongst murderers, drug addicts and schemers, only because it makes bad memory resurface.
Like a good mystery often does, THE DAMAGE DONE highlights the dark side in human nature. It doesn't care who you are, how much you do and what restaurants you eat at, everybody has one. Davidson exposes the flaws in her characters and makes them endearing. Tariq Lawrence for example, is a snob and a jealous boyfriend, but he loves Claudia so much it's hard to dislike him. He never says it out loud, but when Lily comes to him for help, he goes through great pains to make himself available to assist her and puts himself in harm's way without a second thought. He's visibly going back to painful places, but he does it with reckless abandon. He's a man on a mission. Detective Bruxton is a cast member that comes from a very different upbringing that Tariq, who's endearing side comes through like sun beams through wooden walls. Here's an example.
"Take a breath," said Bruxton. "These are new shoes. Don't get sick on them."
I stared at his feet. His shoes were scuffed black leather, of an indeterminate style that shouted discount outlet. "They don't look new."
"This is what new shoes look like when you're making support payments."
It's dark, begrudging, but it highlights that Bruxton is a responsibly family man who's going through a lot. It's that kind of small detail Davidson scatters through her novel that makes the interaction in between her characters so complex and engaging. THE DAMAGE DONE has a larger-than-life mystery for the reader to solve and yet, there is so much attention give to detail and to flesh out small aspects of the novel, it makes it layered and engaging. Great characters with extensive interactions will do that, at least to me. Give me somebody to root for and I will follow you on bloody stumps through the snow. Lily Moore, Tariq Lawrence, Jesse Rob, Martin Sklar and Detectives Bruxton and Renfrew are worth it.
If you read THE DAMAGE DONE and liked it as much as I did, rejoice. There are two other Lily Moore novels. THE NEXT ONE TO FALL, published in 2011 and EVIL IN ALL ITS DISGUISES, coming up next winter. Lily has the potential to be a superstar sleuth and have a long-winded series. I knew Hilary Davidson was very talented, but THE DAMAGE DONE is an engaging, cerebral and inspired. Chalk her up as another great lady of crime fiction along with Megan Abbott, Jennifer Hillier and Sara Gran. Count me up as a fan, too.
FOUR STARS
FOUR STARS