Synopses & Reviews
Margot Livesey's early novel
Criminals is the story of adult brother and sister Ewan and Mollie and their decision to rescue an abandoned child. But is the child being rescued by these two, or abducted? Where is the line between moral and criminal behavior? Livesey paints a thrilling and devastating portrait of two people blinded by need and the desire for betterment.
Review
"In her second novel, Livesey maps the nature of desire from its most innocuous to its most manipulative. The story begins when Ewan Munro, a successful London banker, finds a baby in the men's room of a Perth bus station. He is on his way to visit his sister Mollie, and a moment's indecision finds him back on the bus with the baby. Mollie, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, finds herself attaching to the baby she initially intended to give to the authorities. Meanwhile, the real father, a simple-minded, low-class thug from Perth, who left the baby and witnessed Ewan's inadvertent kidnapping, begins to develop blackmail plans of his own. This is only the beginning of a novel that moves comfortably from the world of high-stakes London banking to working-class Perth, to the remote landscape of northern Scotland. In Criminals, Livesey, a native of Scotland, reveals how narrow the line is between wanting and taking, good intentions and criminal ones, absentmindedness and evil. This is a compelling novel that disappoints, however, in the final chapters, when threads of the story are resolved too quickly or not at all." Reviewed by Don Fry, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Review
"A wonderful novel, impeccably written and thoroughly engrossing."--
The New York Times Book Review
"Where do love, honesty, and responsibility intersect? . . . A provocative rumination on family and what it means to do the right thing."--Glamour
"Funny, suspenseful, and sometimes creepy."--Los Angeles Times
"One of the most surprising thrillers of the year--completely offbeat, unexpected, and unique. Margot Livesey is right up there in the realm of P. D. James."--
Newsday
"A story of many kinds of love, indifference, secrecy, and blind selfishness that drives as fiercely to its surprising conclusion as any thriller."--Rosellen Brown
About the Author
Margot Livesey is the author of five novels, including
Homework and
Eva Moves the Furniture, as well as the story collection
Learning By Heart. Born in Scotland, she lives in Boston, Massachusetts, where she is the writer in residence at Emerson College.