The Narrow Bed by Sophie Hannah - review

Hugely entertaining, full of uncomfortable truths and whopping lies. By Mark Sanderson 
The Narrow Bed by Sophie Hannah
Mark Sanderson18 February 2016

Cops and lovers Waterhouse and Zailer are back, this time hunting the crackpot shooter of pairs of friends. Each of the victims is found with a hand-made pamphlet quoting an American female poet whose given name begins with E.

The key to a very mysterious mystery appears to lie with Kim Tribbeck, a “gobby and obnoxious” stand-up who agrees to retrace the route of her latest tour with the aim of identifying the hotel in which she committed cramped adultery with a living “sex robot” called Liam.

Sophie Hannah enjoys making things difficult for herself and her readers. The narrative features extracts from Kim’s memoir; her publisher’s emails; the bloggings of a radical feminist who rages against “toxic masculinity”; and New Age parables that promote sick-making positivity.

All this tricksiness is offset by her spiky depiction of the rivalries and resentments that help and hinder the police investigation. It is hugely entertaining, full of uncomfortable truths and whopping lies, so it hardly matters a jot that the denouement, when it comes, is preposterous. Hannah understands “the thrill-of-the-chase” is what counts. As Waterhouse says: “It’s being close to getting there that’s exciting.”

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