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WORK TITLE: The Watcher
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: London, England
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15076066.Ross_Armstrong * http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2970979/
RESEARCHER NOTES: Goodreads says he is based in North London.–DP
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Warwick University, B.A.; also attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, England.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, actor, and columnist. Has performed in the West End of London, England and on Broadway in New York, NY. Television appearances in Great Britain include Foyle’s War, Jonathan Creek, Mr Selfridge, DCI Banks and Ripper Street. Also hosts a podcast to All Out Cricket magazine.
AWARDS:RADA Poetry Writing Award, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
WRITINGS
Writes a monthly column for You and Your Wedding magazine.
SIDELIGHTS
Ross Armstrong is a British stage and screen actor who is best known in Great Britain for his numerous appearances on British television shows. He also appears in productions by the Royal Shakespeare Company, such as Hamlet, Cyrano de Bergerac, and Antony and Cleopatra.Armstrong studied literature and acting in college and is a contributor to periodicals, including a regular column for You and Your Wedding. “I’d always kept writing in one capacity or another,” Armstrong noted about his career in an interview Handwritten Girl website contributor Bronagh McAteer.
In his debut mystery novel, The Watcher, Armstrong tells the story of a birdwatcher who sees something suspicious followed by a neighbor turning up dead. Armstrong’s idea for the story came after he moved into a new apartment and was gazing at the moon through binoculars when he realized he could also see into neighboring homes. As for writing a crime novel, Armstrong told Handwritten Girl website contributor McAteer that over time he realized crime novels were his “favorite genre,” adding: “I think it has a simplicity but sense of constant mystery which I can’t stop going back to the well for. My favourite movies are mostly Hitchcock or David Fincher movies, and I wanted to see whether I could write something that people couldn’t help but consume, but also has a kind of weight to it that those directors, and writers like Gillian Flynn and Harlan Coben create too.”
The Watcher finds Lily Gallic and her husband living in a new apartment in London opposite a group of high-rise apartments scheduled for demolition. Lily is not only an avid bird watcher but a people watcher as well. Her interest in her neighbors goes beyond watching, however, as she constantly imagines their lives and makes up stories about them, which she often tells her husband. In fact, Lily goes as far as to keep an extensive set of notes on her observations of people, noting “all their comings and goings, all of their distinguishing features, height, weight, abode etc.,” as noted by a Storgy website contributor. Writing for the Lancashire Post Online, Pam Norfolk commented: “’Watching their lives has become an obsession for Lily who finds it ‘thrilling’ to spy on human beings through her binoculars but, increasingly aware of a social divide, she can’t help but feel sorry for the residents, some losing their home of thirty years.”
Lily has made an effort to befriend an elderly neighbor named Jean. When Jean is murdered, Lily realizes she may have witnessed something during one of her forays into voyeurism and that her notes may contain an answer to who murdered Jean. Jean starts to investigate on her own and soon finds herself in serious danger as she gets closer to the truth of Jean’s murder.
“The Watcher is an excellent first novel,” wrote New Review of Books website contributor Derek Dryden, adding: “It’s a dark, psychological thriller that takes us deep into the obsessive thoughts that lie within Lily.” Mal McEwan, writing for the Crime Fiction Lover website, noted: “There are points when the problems with Lily’s state of mind stretch and test your engagement with her,” but went on to remark: “The Watchers has a distinctive and original voice that offers a twisty and tense homage to Hitchcock.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, February 27, 2017, review of The Watcher, p. 77.
ONLINE
Crime Fiction Lover, https://crimefictionlover.com/ (December 22, 2016), Mal McEwan, review of The Watcher.
Handwritten Girl, http://handwrittengirl.com/ (January 25, 2017), Bronagh McAteer, “Ross Armstrong,” author interview.
Lancashire Post, http://www.lep.co.uk/ (January 10, 2017), Pam Norfolk, review of The Watcher.
Newtown Review of Books, http://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/ (January 19, 2017), Derek Dryden, review of The Watcher.
Storgy, https://storgy.com/ (December 29, 2016), review of The Watcher.*
'An eerily atmospheric reworking of Hitchcock's Rear Window' The Guardian on The Watcher
'Ross Armstrong will feed your appetite for suspense' Evening Standard
His debut novel The Watcher has been described as The Girl On The Train meets Rear Window.
Ross Armstrong is a British stage and screen actor who has performed in the West End of London, on Broadway and in theatres throughout the UK. Among others, he has acted opposite Jude Law (Hamlet), Joseph Fiennes (Cyrano de Bergerac), Kim Cattrall (Antony and Cleopatra) and Maxine Peake (The Deep Blue Sea). His TV appearances include Foyle’s War, Jonathan Creek, Mr Selfridge, DCI Banks and most recently, Ripper Street.
After gaining a BA in English Literature and Theatre at Warwick University, Ross went to RADA and whilst there he won the RADA Poetry Writing Award. The idea for his debut psychological Thriller, The Watcher, came to him when he moved into a new apartment block and discovered whilst looking at the moon through binoculars that he could see into his neighbours’ homes. Thankfully for them, he put down his binoculars, picked up his pen and wrote a crime novel.
He is an avid cricket fan and hosts a podcast to All Out Cricket magazine. He also has a monthly column in You and Your Wedding magazine.
@RArmstrongbooks
Handwritten Girl
Ross Armstrong
by Bronagh on January 25, 2017
Bronagh McAteer
Ross Armstrong is a British stage and screen actor who has performed in the West End of London, on Broadway and in theatres throughout the UK. Among others, he has acted opposite Jude Law (Hamlet), Joseph Fiennes (Cyrano de Bergerac), Kim Cattrall (Antony and Cleopatra) and Maxine Peake (The Deep Blue Sea). His TV appearances include Foyle’s War, Jonathan Creek, Mr Selfridge, DCI Banks and most recently, Ripper Street. After gaining a BA in English Literature and Theatre at Warwick University, Ross joined the National Youth Theatre where his contemporaries included Matt Smith and Rafe Spall. A three year course at RADA followed and whilst there he won the RADA Poetry Writing Award. The idea for his debut novel ‘The Watcher’ came to him when he moved into a new apartment block and discovered whilst looking at the moon through binoculars that he could see into his neighbours’ homes.
To the readers of the blog, that may not be familiar with you or your writing, can tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into writing?
I studied English Literature at Warwick University and acting at RADA and for the past ten years have been an actor in TV shows like ‘Ripper Street’, ‘Foyles War’ and ‘Jonathan Creek’, and on stage with the RSC amongst others. But I’d always kept writing in one capacity or another. Finishing a book was something I only managed to get the time and mental alacrity to do a few years ago. Then I threw that one away and wrote a better one. I was lucky to have a lot of interest in it, the wonderful literary agent Juliet Mushens took it on and it’s being published by HQ (Harper Collins) in the UK and Harlequin in the US. And is being translated into many languages including, most recently confirmed, Hebrew.
Where do you get your ideas for your stories?
I’ve been thinking recently that crime stories are tales told backwards. I don’t know whether this has been said before and more eloquently, but I feel like someone like Chekhov told stories by showing you the surface and then delving into its darker elements, crime stories start with darker elements and then try and reel back and show you the seemingly innocuous surface. With ‘The Watcher’ I came to a way of doing things which starts with creating a setting and a motive which has some kind of resonance to modern trends, like the gentrification of London in this case, and then tried to figure out the most enjoyable and instructive way to tell that story structurally.
In this case, we go in at the middle. Then go back to the start. Then move past the middle and drive on to the end. But then the process of writing any novel is all about dashing around in terms of timeline. The challenge I set myself was to do that in a clear but beguiling way, and by staying with one viewpoint while I did that. Creating an obsessive tension caused by never moving from a close up on the central character. Like a movie like ‘Buried’, or even ‘Son of Saul’ does.
As for figuring out where that original idea comes from, usually I see an image, in this case the view of a distant apartment from mine and then figure out a plot point, from there I imagine a character that might do the most interesting thing with that plot. Then go from there.
Was there ever a book that you read, that didn’t live up to the hype that surrounded it and left you disappointed?
Firstly, I just love reading, I write in my second book about the pure process of reading is enjoyable in a way that watching a screen can never be, somehow chemically, something my central character can never have, because he can’t read. That’s a long winded way of saying I almost always enjoy a novel. I do however often have trouble with short stories. I’m sure it’s my particular view on things, but I feel like I don’t understand the format. So often stories from the American short story tradition leave me cold. However, I’m enjoying Shirley Jackson’s collection ‘Dark Tales’ and I loved David Eagleman’s ‘Sum’, a series of virtually one page visions of the afterlife written by a neuroscientist. I love Eagleman and he’s been a big influence on my next book.
If you were starting your writing journey again, would you do anything differently?
I suppose I would’ve started writing thrillers earlier because I feel I’ll never have enough time in my life to experiment with all the stories I have in my head in the genre, and to read all the wonderful books out there, in all genres, that I want to. I really get so inspired by other writers, the choices they make that take you out of your usual way of doing things.
Why did you decide that you wanted to write crime?
It took a while for me to realise it was my favourite genre. I think it has a simplicity but sense of constant mystery which I can’t stop going back to the well for. My favourite movies are mostly Hitchcock or David Fincher movies, and I wanted to see whether I could write something that people couldn’t help but consume, but also has a kind of weight to it that those directors, and writers like Gillian Flynn and Harlan Coben create too.
What do you think makes a good crime book?
I think there is a point where story relevance meets absolute irrelevance, in terms of pure enjoyment and escapism. If that’s not too elliptical. I think a lot of my favourite crime writers seem to do that naturally.
From books and films, who has been your favourite bad guy?
Great question. John Doe in Seven comes to mind. The way he comes into the story. The absolute relentless darkness. So brilliant, empty, unusual, and superbly played by Kevin Spacey.
If you were to start your own bookclub, what authors would you ask to join?
Chuck Palahniuk, Teju Cole, Stephen King, Lee Child, Jessie Burton, Deborah Levy, Paul Beatty, Harlan Coben, Gillian Flynn, Hugh Laurie, Jonathan Franzen, Ottessa Moshfegh, Patti Smith, Haruki Murakami, Lena Dunham, the poets Derek Walcott, Kate Tempest and Adam O’Riordan, the ghosts of Patricia Highsmith, John Williams, Charles Bukowski and Phillip K. Dick. I think we’d have a good time.
If you were stranded on a desert island, which three books would you bring with you to pass the time?
‘Stoner’ by John Williams. ‘Freedom ‘by Jonathan Franzen. ‘The Infinite Jest’ by David Foster Wallace; at over a thousand pages it’s probably the perfect length for the occasion.
What area do you suggest a budding writer should concentrate on to further their abilities?
Throw out the idea of writing a great line. Come up with a great structure. Test it over and over again. Chip away at it until it’s a perfect statue. Make sure it’s clear but surprising. Then write a clear and surprising first chapter. Re draft it a hundred times until it’s the most clear and surprising and enticing and true to you it can be.
When sitting down to write, what is the one item you need beside you?
I can start writing anywhere, then I kind of wake up eight hours later, like someone that can fall asleep anywhere. It’s very weird. But I also need coffee and water to make it happen.
And finally Ross do you have any projects or releases on the horizon which you would like to share with the readers of the website?
I’m in a great TV show called ‘Will’ about the early writing years of William Shakespeare, made by TNT, which will be arriving soon in 2017. It’s a spikey, punk version of his life, but I play the least rock n’roll character of all time, and I loved every second of it.
Then I’m working on my second book which is about a man who survives being shot in the head, leaving his brain irrevocably altered, and how he awkwardly tries to solve a crime no one has asked him to get involved in, while negotiating a new way of looking at the world. It’s ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat’ meets ‘Seven’.
The Watcher
264.9 (Feb. 27, 2017): p77.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
The Watcher
Ross Armstrong. Mira, $26.99 (336p) ISBN 9780-7783-3072-1
Bird and people watcher Lily Gullick, the narrator of Armstrong's uneven debut, uses binoculars to observe her neighbors in nearby flats in London. She names them, invents stories about them, and talks to her husband, Aiden, about them. Lily lives in a new apartment building, while older buildings across the street are slated to be demolished and their residents "rehoused" elsewhere. Lily tries to befriend Jean, a resident resisting demolition, and when Jean is murdered, she becomes obsessed with finding the killer. Only gradually does the reader get a clear picture of Lily as she reveals more about herself and her troubles with other people, including the police. Alfred Hitchcock fans will appreciate the many nods to the famed director, from the obvious Rear Window scenario to Aiden's planned book on Hitchcock, but this novel, with no memorable characters other than Lily, fails to generate much suspense. Agent:Juliet Mushens, Caskie Mushens Agency (U.K.). (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Watcher." Publishers Weekly, 27 Feb. 2017, p. 77. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485671165&it=r&asid=b9c075f52d8c498e3b9ac725b7b0ab26. Accessed 28 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485671165
storgy December 29, 2016 Uncategorized
BOOK REVIEW: The Watcher by Ross Armstrong
THE WATCHER by Ross Armstrong...https://storgy.com/2016/12/29/book-review-the-watcher-by-ross-armstrong/
Ross Armstrong is a working actor from North London who has appeared on stage and screen, with his most recent outing the new series of ‘Ripper Street’. ‘The Watcher’ is his first novel which is due for release by Harlequin on the 29th December 2016 – just the thing to help you survive the festive period and start your new year.
There is a lot to love about the book; there are small details that Armstrong delicately places within his prose that enables the reader to become one with the language, behaviour and subtle cadences of a bird watcher; but let me first get you up to speed with things. The story centers on the lives of the somewhat ditsy Lily (who is the birdwatcher / ornithologist wannabe) and her husband Aiden (the struggling writer), who both live in a newly built complex in London. Armstrong sets the scene superbly with the luxury apartments going up all around an existing council estate; the rejuvenation of our suburbs has never been so vividly portrayed.
I myself am all too familiar with this issue still facing many families and communities in modern day Britain, much as it did when I was growing up in an rejuvenated part of London; not in the luxury apartment, the other side of the tracks. It was a familiar tale when those living in council flats and estate housing were offered the chance of moving to more adequate living; uplifting their whole lives / community for the promise of a new land but inevitably being settled way outside of their usual comfort zones and some even sent packing up north – but I digress.
Lily’s hobby of bird watching soon turns to watching the local community from the comfort of her flat, watching those who live in the other high-rise apartments opposite. Keeping notes on all their comings and goings, all of their distinguishing features, height, weight, abode etc. After a death in the local community, Lily discovers that her hobby could help identify the killer; whilst also enlisting the help of others she goes from desk worker to espionage extraordinaire. All whilst her husband is entirely oblivious to his wife’s crazy new world!
Each chapter commences with either a countdown – that ramps up the tension, or an observation (bird watching) sheet which helps the reader discover small glimpses into who the following chapter is about. This format helps the reader become more acquainted with the contextual information that surrounds her twitching (bird watching). A nice little touch from Armstrong.
There are some twists and turns along the way and Armstrong brilliantly executes most of these seamlessly. The whole book is written in the first person which I found slightly jarring as I occasionally found it hard to recognise her voice amongst the constant meandering thoughts. But having said this, the style that Armstrong has chosen to use did remind me of the great Bret Easton Ellis and his works of ‘Less than Zero’ and ‘The Informers’, mainly the structuring of his sentences and the tone he evokes throughout the novel.
The book also reminded me of the 1954 film ‘Rear Window’ by Hitchcock, where James Stewart plays L.B (Jeff) Jefferies who is incapacitated and has to remain at home; where he spends his days spying on those who live across the courtyard in the apartments opposite. So is the idea Ross Armstrong comes up with original? It does have some lovely sparks of creative beauty and its easy to tell that Armstrong has talent, it’s just when I finished reading the book there was no sense of wonderment. For me it appeared to be a reimaging of ‘Rear Window’ with subtle deftly added differences.
Armstrong proves that he is an accomplished writer and much of his prose is beautifully written; one piece I loved was the following statement. This piece of dialogue came when birds began flying into the window of her flat, making bloody, feathered stains across the glass.
‘It’s still beautiful though. It’s still a beautiful creature of the air. I look closer at it and to the tiny crack it’s body has made in the glass. I put my fingers to the glass. It only takes the tiniest crack to let the rest of the world in. To ruin everything.’
As said above Armstrong does show undeniable talent at times when journeying into the mind of someone who is loosing grip on their reality whilst also being embroiled in a quest for truth and justice; I just cant wait to see what he does next. He’s popped his cherry with ‘The Watcher’ and I feel that when the time comes for his follow up novel, he’ll have a clearer view with a fresh and dynamic subject. Armstrong’s talent at writing thrilling dialogue and creating suspense is wonderful and often whilst reading before sleep, I did experience several late nights after being drawn in to this page-turner.
For me though I found the format a little too jarring; but as said before, this is my personal preference, many people I’m sure wont find this an issue. One reason for this may have been caused by Armstrong’s characterisation of his main protagonist Lily; with very short sentences throughout which I put down to her characterisation from as a bird watcher, always observing and making notes. However, I occasionally wanted to escape her head for a few sentences at least but alas this joy was never in sight.
I would recommend ‘The Watcher’ to fans of books in the thriller and suspense genre and I am sure they would enjoy the world Armstrong creates. Whilst it may be a familiar storyline replicated in other art forms (literary and film) it’s undeniable that Armstrong is an intelligent writer. A bright start from a debuting novelist whom I shall be keeping an eye out for in the future!
I especially loved the scene in which Lily broke in to an apartment with a hammer – but you will get no spoilers from me, people! Read it.
Book review: The Watcher by Ross Armstrong The Watcher by Ross Armstrong Pam Norfolk Email Published: 17:07 Updated: 22:54 Tuesday 10 January 2017 Share this article 0 Have your say Bird-watching turns to people-watching with deadly results in a dark and intriguing Hitchcock-style thriller from actor and now author Ross Armstrong. A familiar face on both stage and screen, Armstrong’s debut novel is a creepy, atmospheric page-turner, a fascinating Rear Window revamp with a contemporary twist and an unexpectedly endearing social conscience. Brimming with insight into the anomalies of modern city life, The Watcher is a disturbing, blackly comic story about obsession, isolation, urban decay, inequality and guilt which takes us into deep into the troubled, complex mind of Lily Gullick, a birdwatcher living in a newly built apartment block in north-east London. Lonely, mentally unstable and influenced by her research into Hitchcock films, twenty-something Lily’s behaviour and thought processes become increasingly erratic and unpredictable as she sets about making her own enquiries into a neighbour’s death. Lily is bored and lonely. She lives in the brand spanking new Waterside apartments in an up-and-coming area of London but she is in a rut, both mentally and emotionally.Her husband Aiden is writing a book and taps away on his laptop all day so she goes to the window and watches. A keen twitcher, Lily has found a new pastime… observing the residents of Canada House, the condemned block of council flats opposite, where people are being turned out of their homes to make way for new apartments, yet more victims of ‘the middle class land grab.’Watching their lives has become an obsession for Lily who finds it ‘thrilling’ to spy on human beings through her binoculars but, increasingly aware of a social divide, she can’t help but feel sorry for the residents, some losing their home of 30 years and being forced to leave the area where they grew up.And when Jean, one of the elderly residents of Canada House whom Lily has observed and recently befriended, is found dead, the young birdwatcher turned people-watcher becomes convinced she was murdered and starts making her own investigations. But Lily’s interference is not going unnoticed and as she starts to take risks to get close to the truth, her own life comes under threat. But can Lily really trust everything she sees?The Watcher is an unsettling and riveting read as Armstrong explores the dichotomy between old London, with its uprooted, marginalised urban working class residents, and the new city ‘gentry’ who are moving into the swanky apartments that have replaced the decaying high-rise blocks.Moved by the plight of those facing imminent eviction and an uncertain future is Lily who witnesses first-hand through her binoculars the blatant inequalities of the haves and have nots and is determined to assuage her feelings of guilt by tracking down Jean’s killer.But obsessive, compulsive Lily is the classic unreliable narrator and her testimony, written in the form of a journal to an unknown correspondent, becomes a compelling conundrum as we struggle to decipher her cryptic Hitchcockian allusions and separate fact from fantasy. As the danger to Lily becomes spine-tinglingly tangible, the pace also ratchets up and readers are propelled into the dramatic and unexpected conclusion.Exciting, intriguing and socially aware, The Watcher is an enthralling whodunit, packed with surprises and in the best high-suspense tradition of Hitchcock.(Harlequin, hardback, £12.99)
Read more at: http://www.lep.co.uk/lifestyle/books/book-review-the-watcher-by-ross-armstrong-1-8327336
Posted on 19 Jan, 2017 in Crime Scene | 0 comments
Crime Scene: ROSS ARMSTRONG The Watcher. Reviewed by Derek Dryden
Tags: British crime fiction/ Ross Armstrong
The Watcher is a dark psychological thriller and a first-rate debut whodunnit.
This first novel by English actor and writer Ross Armstrong will no doubt appeal to readers who enjoyed The Girl On the Train. Like that book, it features a heroine cut loose from her everyday existence because of one inadvertent observation. But in this case our heroine, Lily Gullick, is a twitcher, or birder, who, with a tilt toward Hitchcock’s Rear Window, observes her neighbours in the adjacent apartment building.
Lily lives with her husband Aiden in a new housing development in North London. The area is being gentrified and existing council flats are being demolished to make way for the new buildings. As is often the way with urban renewal projects, there is a small handful of angry council tenants who refuse to move while the demolition of their building goes on around them.
Lily records her thoughts and actions in a journal which is addressed to an unknown recipient. She precedes each chapter with two significant observations: one is the day’s sighting – initially avian – species, colour size, habitat, etcetera. Then, as the story progresses, the sightings become focussed on the humans around her:
We roll down the blind and leave ourselves the smallest gap at the bottom to look through. We make sure all the lights are off and I walk him through it. You would love this. It’s like being back in the hide, but better. I get my elbows in place on a magazine and look up, playing with the focus dial and looking for a light on the Waterside building. I flash past a couple of darkened ones, probably owned by overseas investors, so many flats are empty here. Then I see it, lit up like a Christmas tree. A couple. At it. Not sex. Just at it. Living. You can see their whole room …
The second chapter heading is a countdown. ‘30 days until it comes’, ‘20 days until it comes’, and so on.
Lily has a mind-numbing market research position which involves calling delegates who have participated in medical conferences and seeking their feedback on the minutiae: ‘How were the seating arrangements?’ for example. But at heart she’s an observer of other people’s lives, and briefly befriends Jean, one of the last residents left in Canada House, the remaining set of council flats. When Jean is murdered, suspicion falls on Lily as one of the last people see her. And like Rachel in The Girl On the Train, Lily becomes an amateur sleuth, obsessing about her neighbours’ behaviour. She develops a spreadsheet, listing every window she can see into, and methodically eliminates the potential suspects. In one window, she is certain she sees a man assaulting a woman, so, befriending a group of homeless young men, she enlists their help to break into his flat, certain he is the killer:
At this point I was very excited. Nervous too. Quaking. But you can be that much more determined when you know what you’re doing is right. Maybe she’s in here right now. Alive or dead. I take a look. Inside the bedroom first. I tread carefully but swiftly. He has two mid-century French bedside tables. I run my hand over one of them as I put the other hand to the sliding wardrobe.
I waver. And gulp. I’m not sure what I will find. Not sure I’m ready to see a body. A face grimacing in pain. Dead or alive. Wrists bound together. Bruises all over the body. I’m not sure I want to see any more.
‘Oi, what are you doing?’
Lily hides information from the police, she obfuscates, and through a selection of her truths and half-truths, we suspect she is becoming unbalanced. But even a crazy person can catch a killer.
Except that it isn’t quite that easy. That countdown ‘until it comes’ eventually reaches zero. And I for one did not see ‘it’ coming at all.
The Watcher is an excellent first novel. It’s a dark, psychological thriller that takes us deep into the obsessive thoughts that lie within Lily. As with the heroines in Gone Girl and The Girl On the Train, it’s as much a story about one woman unravelling as it is a first-rate whodunit.
Ross Armstrong The Watcher HarperCollins 2016 PB 400pp $29.99
Derek Dryden is the founder of Newtown’s iconic bookstore Better Read Than Dead. He is a travel blogger and a sometime bookseller with the Harry Hartog group.
You can buy The Watcher from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW here or you can buy it from Booktopia here.
To see if it is available from Newtown Library, click here.
The Watcher
December 22, 2016
Written by Mal McEwan
Published in iBook, Kindle, Print, Reviews
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Written by Ross Armstrong — Hitchcock looms large over this debut novel. A striking cover evokes The Birds and the initial premise is a post-modern twist on the 1954 film Rear Window. Our hero with a pair of binoculars is Lily Gullick. She is a bird watcher, a twitcher, but she spends most of her time on her balcony watching her London neighbours in the flats opposite. She sparks up a brief relationship with an older woman, Jean, from the neighbouring flats. The flats are already condemned and Jean is then murdered. Unlike in Rear Window, Lily has no immediate suspects for the murder but she starts investigating in her own style.
Lily narrows the list of suspects as she voyeuristically charts the movements of the occupants of the flats. Naming them after Hitchcock’s actors, the antics of Tippi, Janet and Cary fill her lenses. Lily is living with her husband, Aiden, who is absorbed in writing his novel so she engrosses herself in the investigation. She soon realises that her observations aren’t enough and with the help of some locals she ventures out to take more direct action. This is more risky and her behaviour and mood swings soon become erratic and unpredictable.
The Hitchcock references come thick and fast and are initially almost overwhelming. In the first few pages I was spending more time puzzling over cryptic allusions to the director’s oeuvre than taking in the story. However, within a couple of chapters you’ll be immersed in the world viewpoint of Lily. Each chapter starts with brief notes that emulate a birdspotter’s diary. Again, this can be distracting and the story holds up on its own without needing any devices. Armstrong does throw in some further overt nods to Hitchcock throughout the plot but it is also blackly comic.
The social background to this novel touches on the intersection of gentrification and urban degeneration. Lily recognises the inequalities and she feels the vague guilt of the ‘haves’ spectating on the ‘have-nots’. There is no underclass perspective in this book but it is not attempting to be a searing social commentary. Neither are these heavy handed or token attempts to add superfluous background colour. The portrayal of the social milieu adds depth to the narrative and we walk with Lily as she attempts to create simple human connections.
Hitchcock held back information from the audience and his own characters to build tension and Armstrong has clearly been studying the master of cinematic suspense. The pressure builds effectively but it is driven by the narrative disintegration as our confidence in the narrator, Lily, crumbles. This is another psychological thriller where an unreliable narrator is a key element in the story. Hitchcock once said that drama is life with the dull bits cut out. In this book, as is the current vogue, drama is life with the important bits left out. It is effective but you have to put yourself in the author’s hands and trust he will deliver.
And deliver he does. Armstrong lifts the pace as we dash towards the conclusion. There are points when the problems with Lily’s state of mind stretch and test your engagement with her. On occasions it is more disorientating than intriguing and a few readers may drop by the wayside as their patience is tested. However, underpinning the story is the likeable character of Lily who is vulnerable and damaged. Like any good book, the depth of feeling for the main character is paramount and I was rooting for Lily all the way. The Watchers has a distinctive and original voice that offers a twisty and tense homage to Hitchcock.
The Watchers is released 29 December. For another interesting book inspired by Alfred Hitchcock, try What You See in the Dark by Manuel Munoz.
Harlequin Mira
Print/Kindle/iBook
£12.08