Anne-Marie likes a drink and her anti-social behaviour is causing problems in her neighbourhood. One day Anne-Marie is found dead and everyone wonders who killed Anne-Marie.
This book is a mystery set somewhere in Britain. The author is careful not to reveal any locations, everywhere is generic, the city, the street, the park, the shops etc. This is a shame as the whole book is so obviously British, she could have had so much extra added value by using real locations.
Character development is very good. By the end of the novel you really get to know Anne-Marie and her husband Daniel. It is a shame about the book’s title because you know before you start reading that Anne-Marie will not make it to the end. But slowly the story develops and we learn how Anne-Marie and Daniel have been living and what sort of marriage they hold. Then when Anne-Marie dies, the mystery deepens until all is revealed very near the end.
I liked how C.M. Thompson explored the dynamics of marriage and how couples cope with the pet hates of their partners. I liked how she dealt with the problems that can be caused by alcoholics. I liked how she featured the love that can be shared within a relationship when partners are strongly aware of each others bad points.
I liked how her husband and wife appeared very real. They are not glamorous but refreshingly ordinary. It niggles me when female characters are beauty queens and faultless in their appearance and actions. Anne-Marie is your normal, ordinary, heavy drinker and it made me smile when I got to the part…
Anne-Marie has been wearing the same faded grey pyjamas since Tuesday; not last Tuesday or the Tuesday before, but over a month ago last Tuesday. She is barely wearing them anyway: she has lost so much weight, they hang loosely off her scraggly frame. She is vaguely aware that she smells. She knows her hair is in dire need of a wash and she has split ends on her split ends but she just can’t bring herself to give a flying fuck.
...Anne-Marie is not a celebrity model, she is dirty, scruffy and smelly! And her poor husband Daniel tries his best and when I got to this bit, I understood his plight and had great sympathy for him…
If he tried to watch TV, she would be there endlessly asking questions; if he tried to involve her, she would want alone time. If he cooked, she wasn’t hungry. If he ordered in food, then she was sick of take-aways. If something was left lying around, it wasn’t anything to do with her. If he tidied something away, she was using that, THANK you. Everything he did or said was wrong. Then he made the mistake of having a beer. He just wanted to turn off a little, it had been a hard day at work and he was very tired. He had tried to do it in secret but she had caught him. You would have thought he was hiding the crown jewels from her, the way she started. Then she wanted one. Just one.
...So Anne-Marie and Daniel bumbled along in their marriage enjoying many hours of drinking, over-eating and watching television. The three things we have shared in our marriage over the last 27 years!
I enjoyed reading Who Killed Anne-Marie? and I thought it was a GOOD mystery. There were plenty of suspects but the focus was on how Daniel was getting on and being a husband, it felt very easy to stand in his shoes as the pages swept by. I found this book a GOOD read, so it gets 4 stars from me.
Who Killed Anne-Marie? was written in 2018 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.
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