A Helping Hand: Celia Dale

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There is something deeply unnerving about a crime novel featuring an ordinary domestic setting – the type of story where sinister activities take place behind the veil of net curtains in the privacy of the protagonist’s home. While Maisie is somewhat reluctant to have an outsider in the house, potentially disrupting their treatment of Mrs F, Josh is more willing, particularly given the girl’s attractiveness.

She’s as happy as a sandboy with me and Josh knowing just what she likes, and anything coming in new from the outside might only upset her again. While Maisie proceeds to wear down Mrs Fingal by restricting her movements, Josh can be equally sinister in his own chilling way, neglecting his charge for other, more interesting activities. One of the things Dale does so well here is to let the reader in on what the Evanses are up to, slowly but surely as the narrative unfolds.It is a frightening prospect and Dale realises how easily the seam of respectability can be played by fraudsters out for their own ends.

By the end of the holiday, a plan is in place for Mrs Fingal to go and live with the Evanses – an arrangement that seems to suit everyone concerned. In fact, I wondered if you might have read it already, especially as Celia Fremlin’s name keep popping up as a potential soul sister to Dale. It’s fascinating how suburbia so quickly became a place in books and films where white picket fences (or lace curtains), could conceal horrors.We meet Josh Evans, cheerfully squalid, with a fondness for ‘busts’ and bikinis; and Maisie, a lifelong nurse, in whose mouth the word ‘dear’ has the ordinary deadliness of a kitchen knife. Nevertheless, everything I’ve heard about her work makes me think she’s in a similar vein – all the more so as you’ve backed this up!

It’s an icily compelling tale of greed and deception, stealthily executed amidst carefully orchestrated conversations and endless cups of tea.You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Subtle eeriness and unsettling feeling throughout but it never really amounted to much and felt slightly repetitive - but maybe the point was to highlight the monotony of Mrs Fingal’s sad life with the Evanses? Nasty, twisted slice of suburban horror; the horrors lurking beneath a veneer of average suburban living, the evils and subterfuge of marriage, the sickening creepiness of middle-aged men. For fans of Shirley Jackson, Roald Dahl and Muriel Spark, A Helping Hand is a sharp and nasty slice of darkness, and a reminder that the real horrors of this world can all too often be found behind discreet net curtains and the quietly nondescript.

Rich, dark and at times funny, this book is a real thriller in the vein of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith and Muriel Spark. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that the material is credited and referenced to JacquiWine’s Journal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For those who think they’ve seen everything the crime genre has to offer, this is an example of how it can keep rewarding. Post navigation ← The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast – Episode 37: Hotel Novels Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux (tr. So when Josh and Maisie bond with Mrs Fingal, over ice-cream and gentle toddles, it’s only natural that they all decide she should must move in with them once home.We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. Valancourt Books has recently published new editions of two of Celia Dale's novels, A Dark Corner and this book, A Helping Hand. As Graziella bonds with Mrs Fingal, encouraging the old lady to build up her strength by walking again, she senses that something is decidedly off.