Under The Harrow is another one of those debut novels that comes garlanded with rave pre-publication reviews.  It struck me as a competent enough psychological thriller.  The basic plot and setting – the gruesome murder of a young woman in a small English country town and its discovery by the victim’s sister- is certainly well-worn territory.  If anything distinguishes it from a hundred other novels otherwise much like it, it’s the siblings’ secrets and complicated relationship gradually laid bare by the tragedy.

Much has been made in the reviews of the mature, precise, and controlled prose style, and it’s certainly true that Flynn Berry writes like a much more experienced novelist.  It will be interesting to watch what she does next, even if I wasn’t especially impressed by her first effort.