Criminals

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

Livesey, a Canadian born in Scotland and living in London, shows in her
second novel how, in the hands of a skilled writer, a series of
apparently random events can be woven together in a taut, believable
psychological drama. The diverse cast of characters includes a lonely,
recently separated young woman, her ultra-moral brother, a loutish
schemer and his East Indian mistress, and the catalyst, a five-month-old
baby girl. The abandonment of the baby in the men’s room of a Perth,
Scotland, bus station sets off the series of events. The infant is found
by the brother on his way to visit his sister, who is having a nervous
breakdown. What follows is a series of seemingly accidental delays—car
trouble, bad weather— and the reader is drawn into the darkening plot.


Livesey’s Scottish roots and Brit-isms are everywhere—a strong
sense of the Scottish countryside; understated, sparse expressions. But
it is the effortless way in which she steers her characters into
performing badly, despite their many good intentions, that makes this
novel successful.