“A very good read” - Laurence
"Beyond Closure" is the first Valerie Norris novel I have read, an experience I thoroughly enjoyed and wish to repeat, her other works of fiction also available on Amazon and from Cambria Books. In this latest novel the initial stage-setting introduces us to Simon, the first-person narrator, and to other members of staff at the psychotherapy firm where he works. We learn, too, that Simon is divorced and has a girlfriend, but also that he seems to be on good terms with his ex-wife and to a lesser extent with their children
It all seems very typical of the life and work of a middle class professional, but very quickly a note of suspense is introduced when Fleur, a patient he has not treated for many months, leaves a message on his mobile. She had, or so it seemed, lost Michael, her husband, when he went surfing and a body identified as his was recovered from the sea; but she urgently needs to speak to Simon, for Michael has apparently come back into her life. This is one of the main elements of the drama about to unfold, the others concerning his relationships with his family, with his girlfriend and increasingly with Fleur herself.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the story is that it is told in such a way as to leave open the question of the literary genre to which it should be assigned. Is it a tale of mistaken floating-corpse identity, perhaps involving an insurance scam? Fleur does, after all receive a substantial insurance payment after the death, if that is what it was, of her husband. Is it a case of bereavement issues that she hopes that Simon will be able to help her to resolve? But she really believes that Michael has come back. Is it Simon himself, then, who is at the centre of things, given the way in which he seems to be departing from the norms of professional conduct, even going so far as to follow Fleur, or to stalk her as the modern idiom has it? It is a strength of the book that the reader is kept guessing, and this, in my view, resonates with the uncertainty inherent in the lives of us all, in relation not only to being ambushed by unforeseen external events but also to the decisions that we make or the routes on which we find ourselves, very often against our better judgement. Are our actions purposeful or are we simply lost⸻ or both at the same time?
This is a very well-written novel that it is a pleasure to work through, the characters having life breathed into them almost from the first page, not to mention the suspense that begins to build when one of them has the life breathed out of him, or perhaps plays dead. And, too, we gain insights into various matters pertaining to our own lives, the author being a human being just like the rest of us. But also, we learn about the grieving process, for Valerie Norris was and is a bereavement volunteer, and in particular about the role of therapy in one form or another in helping the survivors of another person’s death. Mainly, however, we are willingly led into the magical world of imaginary lives, from which we emerge almost as if returning home from a holiday. That is, we regret its coming to an end but anticipate the next adventure, the author’s two other novels being "In the Long Run" and "The April Letters".
Laurence Peddle