‘People don’t forget when children are murdered. It is seared into the heart of a place, etched into the very foundation of the community.’
WHEN a schoolgirl was murdered in the small village of Barton Mallet thirty years ago, a fellow pupil was tried and jailed, and the close-knit community tried to move on… but now the killer has been freed and festering wounds from the past are about to spectacularly reopen.
Richard Armitage (pictured below) – the multi-award winning stage, screen and voice actor best known for his roles in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, Captain America, Alice through the Looking Glass and Oceans 8 – took the reading world by storm two years ago with his bestselling, heart-pounding debut novel Geneva set in the murky world of biotech. And now he’s back with The Cut, another dark and atmospheric psychological crime thriller brimming with suspense, emotional intensity and Armitage’s trademark twists and turns which explode through the pages like a volley of small but mind-blowing time bombs.
Ben Knot – the handsome boy with golden blond hair known as the class Top Dog – and his friends are looking forward to a summer of fun and freedom once their exams and the last year of school is over.
The class has been through a lot together, both good and bad, but teasing turns to bullying when the Knot gang target younger boy Mark Cherry who plays the cello so obsessively that he has earned the nickname Marcello. But as tensions rise in the hot July sun, so too does the violence and when the summer is over, one of the group will be murdered by someone they called a friend and who is now behind bars.
Thirty years on, Ben is an award-winning architect who has moved his family back to the village where he grew up. His Scouse girlfriend Dani – 15 years younger than him – acts as his ‘adrenaline shot’ and is a hands-on step-mum to his children, budding actor Nate and star footballer Lily. But Ben has never been able to forget the past tragedy, his glittering career is starting to tarnish and some shady business deals have put him on the path to bankruptcy.
Even worse, the killer’s parole date is fast approaching and as his sentence ends, the village is chosen as the unlikely location for a new horror film by a Hollywood producer, with Ben’s son Nathan cast in the leading role. As the film takes shape, Ben begins to recognise the storyline… from his own past.
And as his son becomes immersed in a tale of bullying and retribution, things turn dangerous and an uncomfortable truth begins to emerge. Ben must choose between the safety of his children and reopening the wounds of the past. How much is he willing to risk to protect his family… and himself?
An impressive scene-setter as well as blisteringly good storyteller, Armitage thrusts readers straight into the fast-beating heart of a shocking crime and then sets them on the mystery-strewn path of its lingering legacies throughout the tense opening pages of this brooding, menacing and character-driven story.
The murder of Ben Knot’s teenage girlfriend in the shadow of the village’s smoke-blackened, dark and satanic mill is the focal point of a cruel killing which will quietly but relentlessly pulsate across the decades to the day when the perpetrator is due to be released from prison. And it’s a true rollercoaster ride alongside a cast of exquisitely imagined characters whose lives have been shaped by obsession, guilt, betrayal, revenge, and the fears and phobias that are born from childhood exposure to the many different brands of bullying.
As the past catches up with the present, it’s Ben who would appear to have the most to lose as his business crumbles, his wealth evaporates, his sanity is sorely tested, and his son lands star role in a disturbing film which increasingly appears to be art imitating life.
The Cut is a visceral and evocative reading treat which weaves effortlessly through two timelines, applying turbo boost to the dark vibes bubbling beneath the surface and simultaneously handling sensitive themes like child murder with the gentlest of touches. A class act from a thespian fast discovering the mighty powers of the pen…
(Faber & Faber, hardback, £18.99)
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