A Lesson In Cruelty | Harriet Tyce
REVIEWED BY LINDA HILL
When Anna wakes after her final night in prison to find her cell mate dead, a mobile phone under her pillow and herself accused of murder, little does she realise how much more her life is going to change. As her world collides with Lucy, who is obsessed with her Oxford professor, danger is never far away. Just who can be trusted and who is the biggest threat?
A Lesson in Cruelty starts with riveting drama and doesn’t let up throughout. It is an exciting, tension-filled novel that leaves the reader breathless. Its impact is astonishing.
A Lesson In Cruelty: Review & Synopsis
As the lives of Anna, Lucy and Marie cleverly intertwine, the book reveals itself as a story of society, of control, and of murder. As well as the main plot, which is taut with tension, italicised “Outside” sections threaded through the story add extra drama because we don’t know quite who is presenting them. That narrator is definitely not quite in their right mind, which leaves us jumpy and unsettled.
Having begun with Anna’s story, there’s a real jolt as the focus of the book shifts from her to Lucy. This reflects the way life can alter in an instant for us all; a theme that Harriet Tyce explores so brilliantly.
The book is divided into six parts with pacy chapters that race along, and when all the threads are drawn together at the end, it’s impossible not to be impressed by this exciting narrative.
The characterisation in A Lesson In Cruelty is wonderful
Tyce explores the psychological difference between the actual beliefs, desires and opinions of her characters and the persona they present to the world. There’s a real sense of Lady Macbeth about Anna, from the literal blood on her hands to the adverse impact on her mental health she experiences as she attempts to navigate her return to a world outside prison. The reasons for her prison sentence show how any one of us might receive a similar “lesson in cruelty”, making the book affecting as well as entertaining.
Lucy epitomises the infatuated student with a crush on her college lecturer, Edgar, but her maturity and development over the course of the story feels natural and realistic.
However, although this is such a gripping narrative, the greatest success comes through the themes of justice, fairness, identity, mental health, and, especially, the inhumanity so many like Anna face. Society is judgmental and cruel.
There are so many layers to the idea of cruelty, from the casual, snide remarks Lucy receives from fellow students, through the contemptuous, aggressive attitudes Anna has to endure in prison, as well as physical, mental and emotional manipulation in ordinary people’s lives.
Through these layers, characters become human, regardless of the monstrosity of some of their behaviour. This makes for a very disturbing, unnerving and thought-provoking read.
A Lesson In Cruelty by Harriet Tyce is out on April 11, 2024 (Wildfire, HB, £16.99) and available from Amazon.
Read more fiction reviews by Linda Hill including Every Move You Make by C.L. Taylor, Every Smile You Fake by Dorothy Koomson, The Happiest Ever After by Milly Johnson, The Memory of Us by Dani Atkins and The Due Date by Niki Mackay.
