Review: Nothing is ever what it seems with Terry Tyler's books
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 11, 2013
As a fan of Terry Tyler's books generally, I was looking forward to this newest offering. For those, who like myself, have read all of her books, What It Takes harks back in style to Nobody's Fault (my personal favourite) and You Wish (which just won some award recently). Stalking is once again revisited although in a completely different way. I enjoyed the depiction of several of the characters, including Lois, who I could totally see on her council estate, rigging the benefits system with aplomb. The names given to her children and grandchildren made me giggle, too, as they are the kind of names expected of mothers who get pregnant at 15. Lois and her clan were very stereotypical, but stereotypes exist for a reason. What was rather more unusual was Danny's part in their lives. The novel is told partly by the narrator and partly in the first person by several of the principal characters. Apart from Danny, a sweetheart, we have the three sisters; Ava, Saskia and Karen. One sister feels overshadowed by the others and always has done - a modern day Cinderella in reverse. If she only had a chip on her shoulder, it would make the others' lives much easier, but she's not that straightforward, and a drama queen, as well as being more than a tad unreasonable.Karen's best friend, Sam, seems too good to be true, but everyone needs a Sam.Overall, I found that What It Takes was more descriptive than some of the previous novels and I felt that this was particularly well done - showing a maturity in the author's writing. It was also clear that the author knew Cromer and the surrounding area very well and managed to paint a good picture of a part of the country I've never visited, but could now easily imagine.Terry Tyler's books always feature red herrings, twists and turns and What It Takes is no different. I did guess some of the twists, but I reckon that's because my mind is now thinking along the same lines as the author's! That said, there were still several twists that I didn't get and the extent of some of them was surprising.