Julie Myerson's novel is a murder mystery with a difference, for a start the murder is really only ever in the background and the story revolves around the effect the terrible tragedy has on the main characters. Certainly an interesting approach to the idea, but even from the beginning I found the story somewhat cliched and predictable (in fact barely seventy pages into the story I knew what was going to happen). Having recently suffered the loss of a close relative myself, I know how grief feels and how it affects those around us, but none of that came across in Myerson's book. Her characters seemed flat and lifeless, never at any point in the book did I feel any concern for them or empathise with their feelings, they seemed shallow and their emotions rehearsed or forced.
Some of the problem lies with the style of writing Myerson has chosen to use. Her prose is disjointed, sentences are abrupt and faltering, taken from the character Tess' point-of-view, she is the narrater and no doubt the style is designed to show how the thoughts are flying through Tess' mind in an often confusing jumble, but this leads to a problem, we are never able to get into the heart of this character, nor into any of the minds of the people around her. This can often be a failing when a character narrates the story, they remain a mystery to the reader, because it can seem 'odd' for them to describe themselves to us, though many writers have overcome this hindrance, Myerson I feel has not. Tess is vague, unformed, for most of the book it is unclear even as to what she does for a living, let alone who she is, where she comes from, why she thinks and feels as she does. We are given so little to go on that we remain at a distance from her and cannot really feel for her, or even care about her.
Other characters are described in similarly indistinct manner, they are merely shadows that drift around Tess, they never really define themselves, nor does Tess, as she desribes them, attempt to give us a better understanding of who they are. The text itself can sometimes be confusing, the fragmentary sentences that form dialogue between the characters are never given speechmarks and it can often be confusing as to who is speaking, particularly when two pages of dialogue have gone past, I found myself on a few occasions having to backtrack through the pages to remind myself who was speaking when, which instantly ruined my immersion in the story.
Perhaps this confusion is deliberate? Perhaps it is to show us how the police feel during the murder investigation, how they struggle to 'pin' down a person's thoughts and feelings, how hard it is for them to garner the truth from these people who all appear mysterious. But the landscape and town in which Tess resides (must be Southwold, mustn't it?) is also described in these frigid and abruptly short sentences, giving us no true feeling for the place, (though I recognised several of the locations mentioned, including the old bookshop). We know it is a seaside town, but if I did not live in my own seaside community would I get a feel for the place from Myerson's brief words? I feel the answer is no, the place, like the people, is vague and in the shadows.
On the whole I was disappointed with the story, it did nothing to capture my imagination, it did not spark any intrigue or suspense, in some parts it was so obvious what was to come that it was tiresome to have to read another thirty pages before it actually happened. The best part was actually the last sixty-odd pages, when the little girl Rosa goes missing, finally there is some aspect of danger and suspense, but it does not last and the ending is deflating and feels incomplete. Something Might Happen misses the mark, because unfortunately nothing really does happen.
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