The Chimney Sweeper's Boy

Barbara Vine

Editions

Review

Barbara Vine's usual themes all appear in this excellent psychological thriller: guilt, sexuality and concealment. A celebrated writer dies suddenly.  One of his devoted daughters is commissioned to write his biography.  In conducting her research, she begins to uncover secrets which are at first too strange to understand, and too painful for her to confront. Thanks to the brilliant construction of the novel, the lucky reader is given the chance to unravel the mystery before the dead man's family.  Once again, Barbara Vine presents us with a collection of vivid - if not terribly likeable - characters, in a superbly constructed and haunting novel.  The shocking dénouement rivals that of her earlier work No Night Is Too Long pbk £6.99. - review by Dan Fenton