The Last Winter of Dani Lancing

August 12, 2013
A complicated structure, including leaps from character to character and shifts back and forth in time, interferes with the reader’s enjoyment of British author Viner’s ambitious first novel, a psychological thriller. Twenty years after the unsolved murder and rape of 21-year-old Londoner Dani Lancing, who was attending university in Durham, Dani’s father, Jim, is literally living with Dani’s ghost—a ghost who cannot remember the circumstances of her death. Dani’s mother, Patricia, left Jim years earlier; she is so obsessed with her search for her daughter’s killer that she’s unable to relate to another human being. Det. Supt. Tom Bevans, an appealing figure whose unrequited love of Dani drove him to find a career in helping victims and their families, has news for the Lancings: Dani’s case is going to be reopened, and old evidence reexamined with state-of-the-art methods. The satisfying ending, though a bit of stretch, makes up for the stuttering plot and disorienting flashbacks. Agent: Simon Trewin, William Morris Endeavor.

September 15, 2013
In Viner's feverish psychological thriller, family and friends of Dani Lancing, who was raped and murdered 20 years ago, go to frightening lengths to get to the bottom of, or obscure the facts of, the cold case. Dani's disappearance in 1989, when she was a London college girl, devastated her parents and ultimately drove them apart. Encouraged by advances in DNA testing, her mother, Patty, a former investigative reporter, is obsessed with identifying the killer. She is willing to commit violence of her own to gather fresh evidence. Dani's father, Jim, who is retired, suffers from night terrors, eased only by regular visits from his daughter's ghost. Jumping back and forth in time and switching points of view, the novel connects all sorts of dots, on multiple narrative levels, in establishing suspects. They include Sep, a manipulative druggie who turned Dani on to heroin; Duncan, a married man who was once Dani's lover; and Tom, her childhood best friend, who never got over his unrequited crush on her. Now a police detective called the Sad Man for his teary sensitivity to cases such as hers, Tom cozies up to shady characters as well as Dani's reunited parents in conducting his own investigation. It takes a while for the reader to get on the same page with Viner, and the climax is over-the-top. But once readers hook into the book's fragmented approach, this becomes a chilly, emotionally charged page-turner. Oddly enough, for all its London references and locations, the novel has an American flavor. Perhaps the author, who has achieved success as a filmmaker, spent a lot of time viewing Hollywood noirs? Viner's debut is not completely convincing, but it will hook readers with its intensity and puzzlelike plot.

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September 1, 2013
It's been 20 years since the brutal kidnapping and murder of lovely British college coed Dani Lancing. Her parents, Jim and Patty, had long ago given up hope that the crime would ever be solved. But now Dani's onetime sweetheart, Tom, a vigilant detective, has unearthed clues that could bring the case to an end and provide closure to the young woman's family and friends. Turns out, Dani wasn't the saintly daughter she was thought to be, and the drug-fueled company she kept may have led to her demise. Patty is hell-bent on revenge, while Jim retreats into grief, a shadow of his former self. As bad luck would have it, Patty acts on her volatile emotionswith deadly consequences. Tom, meanwhile, relentlessly pursues the truth, unaware of the sinister souls determined to deter him, even if it means killing him in cold blood. Sharply drawn characters populate the pages of Viner's accomplished debut, which shifts between past and present, steadily ratcheting up the suspense.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)