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A Room Swept White
(2010)(The Cradle in the Grave)
(The fifth book in the Culver Valley Crime series)
A novel by Sophie Hannah
Fliss Benson is a TV producer struggling to deal with a personal tragedy in her own life. She receives at work an anonymous card which consists of 16 numbers arranged in four rows of four. These numbers mean absolutely nothing to her. At the same time, she is handed a particularly unwelcome assignment: she has to work on a documentary about cot death and three mothers accused (wrongly, it seems) of murder: Helen Yardley, Sarah Jaggard and Rachel Hines. The controversial Dr Judith Duffy, who was responsible for the arraignment of the women after the death of their children, is now under investigation for misconduct, and the women have been set free. Fliss Benson's reluctance to work on the film springs from a particularly personal issue -- involving both cot death and the suicide of someone very close to her.
This is the arresting premise of Sophie Hannah's A Room Swept White, and it's further proof (if proof were needed) that since her remarkable debut with Little Face, Hannah seems almost unable to put a foot wrong in the arena of the psychological thriller. The scenario here darkens when one of the three women, Helen Yardley, is found dead at her home. On the body is a card with the same layout of numbers arranged in four rows of four that Fliss Benson had been sent. She is soon faced with both intimidating moral dilemmas and physical danger. Par for the course, in fact, for a Sophie Hannah heroine. Apart from the sheer storytelling skill which is the sine qua non of Hannah's work, one of the most impressive aspects of her books is a subtlety with which she is able to address a variety of moral arguments -- such as the massively divisive issue of cot death in this book. In these areas, the tabloid press is always looking for villains, be they child-killing mothers or heartless social workers. Hannah is well aware that such moral issues are never clear cut, and the fact that she is able to address such subtleties in the context of a page-turning thriller is a mark of her skills. --Barry Forshaw
Genre: Mystery
This is the arresting premise of Sophie Hannah's A Room Swept White, and it's further proof (if proof were needed) that since her remarkable debut with Little Face, Hannah seems almost unable to put a foot wrong in the arena of the psychological thriller. The scenario here darkens when one of the three women, Helen Yardley, is found dead at her home. On the body is a card with the same layout of numbers arranged in four rows of four that Fliss Benson had been sent. She is soon faced with both intimidating moral dilemmas and physical danger. Par for the course, in fact, for a Sophie Hannah heroine. Apart from the sheer storytelling skill which is the sine qua non of Hannah's work, one of the most impressive aspects of her books is a subtlety with which she is able to address a variety of moral arguments -- such as the massively divisive issue of cot death in this book. In these areas, the tabloid press is always looking for villains, be they child-killing mothers or heartless social workers. Hannah is well aware that such moral issues are never clear cut, and the fact that she is able to address such subtleties in the context of a page-turning thriller is a mark of her skills. --Barry Forshaw
Genre: Mystery
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Used availability for Sophie Hannah's A Room Swept White
Hardback Editions
January 2012 : USA Hardback
July 2010 : UK Hardback
March 2010 : UK Hardback
Paperback Editions
August 2011 : UK Paperback
1657 : UK Mass Market Paperback
August 2010 : UK Paperback
January 2011 : UK Paperback
August 2010 : UK Paperback
August 2010 : UK Paperback
March 2010 : UK Paperback
Audio Editions
January 2012 : USA Audio CD
December 2011 : USA Audio edition
December 2011 : Australia Audio edition

Title: A Room Swept White
Author(s): Sophie Hannah
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Availability: Amazon AU
December 2011 : UK Audio edition

Title: A Room Swept White
Author(s): Sophie Hannah
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Availability: Amazon UK
August 2011 : USA Audio edition

Title: The Cradle in the Grave: A Novel
Author(s): Sophie Hannah
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Availability: Amazon
August 2010 : UK Audio CD
August 2010 : UK MP3 CD
August 2010 : UK MP3 CD
Kindle Editions
August 2011 : USA Kindle edition

Title: The Cradle in the Grave: . (A Zailer & Waterhouse Mystery Book 5)
Author(s): Sophie Hannah
Publisher: Penguin Books
Availability: Amazon
August 2010 : Canada Kindle edition
March 2010 : Australia, UK Kindle edition