Storytime

Smother by Eve Thomson, Echo Publishing

- 

I didn't read this book, I inhaled it. Eve Thomson has written the perfect legal page-turner. Smother kicks off on the football field of a prestigious private school, where an on-field incident during a girls' match leaves one teenager in hospital and the others reeling. From the sidelines to the courtroom, the novel unfurls with magnificent precision and pace. The use of court transcripts between chapters is clever and adds another dimension to the book. As a defamation lawyer and parent, Eve knows what she's writing about, and captures the pressure of both experiences. The protagonist, lawyer Romola Cross, is a sage guide through the fallout of a game gone wrong and a team turned toxic. A sharp followup to Eve's debut, She Too.