{"id":6393,"date":"2016-01-11T12:42:02","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T12:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=6393"},"modified":"2016-01-17T17:03:54","modified_gmt":"2016-01-17T17:03:54","slug":"rebound-by-aga-lesiewicz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=6393","title":{"rendered":"Rebound by Aga Lesiewicz"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Published by Macmillan 14 January 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

336pp, hardback, \u00a312.99<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Alison Burns<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to buy this book<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Playing Russian roulette with sex is one of those things we humans do.\u00a0 The reasons are rich and various, as are the behaviours – and their consequences.<\/p>\n

Aga Lesiewicz\u2019s central character, Anna, a thirty-something young professional, lives near London\u2019s Hampstead Heath, a notorious location for uninhibited activity.\u00a0 Turned on by the sight of two men having sex there in the woods in broad daylight, and open to new excitements after ditching her rich boyfriend, she is overwhelmed with desire for a charismatic fellow-jogger whom she encounters on her runs.\u00a0 The scene is set for wordless rough sex with a stranger, whom she nicknames \u2018Mr Dior\u2019. \u00a0After two of these episodes, a woman is raped on the Heath.\u00a0 After the next, there is a second rape, and then a third.\u00a0 Is there a connection?\u00a0 Should she report her \u2018dirty\u2019 encounters?<\/p>\n

At the same time, sinister things begin to happen closer to home: \u00a0roses arrive from an unknown admirer, then crash onto the kitchen floor while she is out; her beloved Labrador, Wispa, escapes from her secure garden; someone breaks into her car. \u00a0Anna suspects that she is being followed.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, at her place of work (a prominent TV corporation), restructuring is underway and everyone is at risk, including Anna.\u00a0 Suddenly, her whole world is \u2018out of kilter, an unsafe and unpleasant place\u2019. \u00a0She wrestles with her conscience, and her fears, and tries, somewhat unsuccessfully, to pay attention to her women friends, who are trying to help her.<\/p>\n

Anna\u2019s dog-walker is extremely disturbed by the Heath rapes. She takes time off, just when Anna has to go to Paris on business.\u00a0 The new dog-walker is not available, so Anna\u2019s friend Bell comes to stay.\u00a0 Before she leaves, Anna has a fourth encounter with Mr Dior.\u00a0 By the time she returns, there has been a murder.\u00a0 Anna\u2019s flat is ransacked, her car tyres slashed, her dog poisoned – and she loses her job. The men in her life\u00a0 –\u00a0 neighbours, acquaintances, ex-boyfriend, boss, a handsome man who crashes into her car\u00a0 –\u00a0 all seem to have violent or otherwise unsavoury streaks.\u00a0 Whom can she trust?\u00a0 And is it somehow all her fault?\u00a0 Did she, without meaning to, start all this?<\/p>\n

The police investigations intensify after a second murder on the Heath.\u00a0 Fortunately for Anna, there does seem to be some care and concern for her, not least from the police, as the vortex of threat begins to suck her down.<\/p>\n

The scary denouement brings some surprises, all of which go to show that violence happens and is not always someone\u2019s fault.\u00a0 It is an interesting feature of this page-turning thriller that the central character, a woman, is interested in sex and susceptible to beautiful men, and also (as she well knows) quite selfish.\u00a0 On occasions – especially after the first rape – this reader was shocked by her offhand reactions.\u00a0 Nonetheless, the ferocity of the aggression towards her, and towards the other women in the story, underlines the very fine line between kicks and danger.<\/p>\n

For fans of contemporary psychological thrillers with strong heroines, here is a promising new writer on the block. \u00a0Aga Leciewicz is working on her second novel, Exposure<\/em>.\u00a0 It should be worth reading.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Alison Burns<\/p>\n

The scary denouement brings some surprises, all of which go to show that violence happens and is not always someone\u2019s fault. It is an interesting feature of this page-turning thriller that the central character, a woman, is interested in sex and susceptible to beautiful men, and also (as she well knows) quite selfish. On occasions – especially after the first rape – this reader was shocked by her offhand reactions […] in Reviews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-fiction-and-non-fiction","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6393"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6583,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393\/revisions\/6583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}