The Cleanskin
LAURA BLOOM
THE AUTHOR PEOPLE, $26.99
Halley is an unlikely candidate for a dark secret. A woman in her late 30s, she lives out a quiet existence in Mullumbimby with her husband and child, running a local cafe catering to the country folk and alternative lifestyle devotees in the area. But Halley hasn't always been her name. When a face from her past intrudes, she finds herself forced to confront a history of violence she thought she had left behind. Laura Bloom's previous novel, In the Mood, reflected the lingering trauma inflicted by war; this one opens a window on the legacy of the Troubles, and IRA-led terrorism in Britain. The Cleanskin takes a little while to settle on the reader – characters are introduced too quickly, without context – but it soon builds into an unsettling tale of buried intrigues, laying bare the personal cost of sectarian conflict.