Review: Charley's Web

Title: Charley's Web
Author: Joy Fielding
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Publisher: Simon & Schuster 2008
437 p.


A beautiful single mother who writes a controversial column for the Palm Beach Post, Charley Webb has spent years building an emotional wall against scathing critics, snooty neighbours and her disapproving family. But when she receives a letter from Jill Rohmer, a young woman serving time on Death Row for the murders of three small children, her wall slowly begins to crumble.

Joy Fielding writes an excellent suspense thriller and I always enjoy her books. The plot builds at an ever increasing pace to a strong finish and keeps one guessing right to the end.
Beneath the surface action is a more thought provoking theme which focuses on the effect the childhood environment has on a person and the different ways people cope with it.

Excerpt from book.

Jill.........We're products of our childhood. Everything we become springs from who we were as children, how we were treated, who and what shaped our ideas and values. We are who we are.

Jill sees herself as a victim and uses that mentality to justify what she did. She had no choice.......it's not her fault.

Charley........We may be shaped by our childhood but there is such a thing as choice. We are what we do.

Charley is successful and assumes she has overcome the influence of her dysfunctional family but she is to discover during her interaction with Jill that she has done this by creating a protective prison around herself..........now she must face the unresolved issues of the past.

Rating: Great easy reading......I give it four stars ****