Home Truths
by Charity Norman
Allen & Unwin
Born in Uganda and brought up in successive draughty vicarages in Yorkshire and Birmingham by her missionary parents, Charity Norman eventually became a barrister before taking a break from the law and moving to New Zealand to write.
Norman has collected a heap of awards for her crime fiction, but the prologue to her latest book Home Truths throws a huge mysterious shadow over the story which takes place two years earlier. Why is Livia Denby on trial for attempted murder?
Livia is a probation officer who lives with her teacher husband Scott and their two children, thirteen year-old Heidi and five year-old Noah. It is the complete happy family scenario until Scott’s brother dies, and there are the first rumblings of a SARS outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Scott’s brother Nicky had Type 1 Diabetes and intellectual disabilities but Scott was always there to help him – until a series of events meant that he missed a vital phone call. Scott is eaten up with guilt and, in his grief, starts questioning everything.
Searching the internet for answers, Scott dives deep into the explosion of conspiracy theories as the virus in China becomes a world-wide pandemic. The rest of the family is also struggling as Scott gets sucked into the whirlpool of misinformation.
While Livia appears to be the hero, cheering everyone on and trying to be positive, her perfect family is surrounded by chaos. Livia sees that Scott is becoming delusional and relying on ‘experts’ who peddle misinformation and fantasy. The only saving grace is Anthony, a friend from the past who seems dedicated to helping Scott.
At the same time, Livia is becoming friends with Charles, one of the prisoners out on probation after serving twenty years for killing someone. Teenage Heidi is suffering because her friends think she should have ‘got over’ her uncle’s death, but Heidi is feeling the pressure of hiding a dark secret.
Livia, Heidi and Scott take turns to narrate the events that build into a desperation that puts the life of one of the family members at risk. With no actual crime being committed, it is up to Livia to defeat an invisible enemy … but will a jury see her as a hero?
Norman takes the reader into the desperate and confusing times brought on by the Covid pandemic in a post-truth era, where one person’s conspiracy theory is another person’s truth.
Lezly Herbert
