Half Broken Things

Starred review from July 25, 2005
British author Joss's brilliantly conceived, finely executed novel, which captured the CWA's Silver Dagger Award, offers psychological suspense of the highest order. The catalyst for a trio of misfits is Jean, a 64-year-old housesitter on the verge of forced retirement. Her last assignment is lengthy: nine months alone at an isolated country house, Walden Manor, whose wealthy owners are abroad for an extended stay. Jean's first casual liberties with the house are almost accidental. Then, as she begins to think of the place as home, she becomes bolder. She welcomes Michael, a middle-aged, less-than-successful thief, who becomes her "lost" son, and the pregnant, unmarried and abused Steph, who becomes her daughter-in-law. In Joss's capable hands, these three lonely losers begin to craft a family life. Even as they use another's property to do so, they're as appealing as they are appalling. How long will their idyll last? How far will they go to preserve it? What crimes are too great? This is a must-read. Joss is also the author of the Sara Selkirk mystery series (Fruitful Bodies
, etc.). Agent, Jean Naggar.

September 15, 2005
British suspense writer Joss ("Funeral Music") won CWA's Silver Dagger Award for this novel about Jean, a housesitter being forced into retirement. With nothing to lose and nowhere to go, Jean moves into the master bedroom of the lovely Walden Manor, her final posting. She dons the owners' clothes, raids the wine cellar, and assembles an impromptu family that includes Michael, a petty criminal, and Steph, a pregnant woman searching for a place to belong. Joss does a credible job of showing how Jean and her guests at Walden Manor find a sense of community they've never before experienced. But then tension mounts as the owners' return draws ever closer and the interlopers become more desperately ensconced in their borrowed home. Jean pleads for understanding for herself and her fellow cohorts, but they are so cold-blooded in their pursuit of happiness that the reader may end up racing through the story as much to get away from these horrifying people as to find out what happens to them. Recommended where suspense fiction is in demand. -Jane la Plante, Minot State Univ. Lib., ND

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2005
Sixty-year-old Jean has no friends or family, a dead-end career as a house sitter, and nothing to look forward to but death. Things change when she lands an assignment house-sitting Walden Manor, a lovely country estate. Shortly after arriving, Jean decides, in a fit of pique and rebellion, to ignore the owners' strict list of instructions and treat the house as her own. ?All she needs is someone with whom to enjoy her "new home." Help arrives in the form of Michael and Steph, whose lives have been nearly as luckless and devoid of love as Jean's. The trio soon forms an unlikely family, finding heretofore unknown contentment and happiness. But then outside forces intrude, and while, at first, the three use deceit and evasion to hold onto their fantasy life, they are soon forced to employ darker methods. The story can have only one ending, but when it arrives, it's still a horrible shock. This is an extraordinary book--dark, painful, thought-provoking, and disturbing. Joss' masterful narrative delivers a provocative examination of good and evil, the nature of love, and the infinite variety of human behavior.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)