Butterscotch

Lyn Loates

David Ling Publishers

Otago Daily Times, May 1st 2009

Butterscotch is a peculiar mixture of the familiar and the bizarre, a whodunnit in which the prosaic streets of 1960s and 1970s Christchurch are occupied by an eccentric (and villainous) cast of characters.

The novel begins in 1979 with the suspicious death of Helen Mainyard in Victoria Park, then jumps back to the time of the notorious Parker/Hulme murder, the point at which the events leading to Ms Mainyard’s untimely demise are initiated.

Helen is only 8 when her parents suddenly and unexpectedly relocate the family to Australia, and New Zealand soon disappears from her consciousness (with the exception of a fascination with crime that she traces back to the 1954 murder).

These memories remain buried for 16 years, until the eve of her departure for Cambridge University, when Christchurch (and especially Amberly, a stately home that had fascinated her as a girl) begins to haunt her dreams.

In an attempt to lay a guilty secret to rest she returns to her old home and finds instead that most of her childhood has been built on lies. Having always assumed the precipitous nature of her parents’ move was related to the Victoria Park murder, Helen discovers the reality is both more personal and dark. Rather than releasing her, it draws her further into her past, with fatal results.

I was repeatedly surprised by unexpected twists, and hope that the number of mass murderers and paedophiles that populate the novel’s pages are indeed, as the author’s disclaimer asserts, entirely fictional.