"Stone Mothers: a Novel" (Minotaur), by Erin Kelly
An imposing former mental asylum reconfigured as a high-end spa and apartment building looms over a remote England town and over the life of Marianne Thackeray in this gothic-inspired thriller that languishes in over-plotting.
At one time, Nazareth Mental Hospital was the main employer in Nusstead, England. Originally called the East Anglia Pauper Lunatic Asylum, the hospital was built during the Victorian era. Its closing during the 1980s plunged the town into an economic downturn from which it — and many families — have never recovered.
The person responsible for the hospital's closing was Helen Greenlaw, the roundly hated chair of the local health authority whose reputation for ruthlessness rivaled that of Margaret Thatcher. When they were teenagers, Marianne and her boyfriend, Jesse Brame, stumbled across forgotten medical records in the abandoned hospital proving that Helen was once a patient there. They used these records to blackmail the rising politician.
That was 30 years ago and the decades have been good to Helen, who is now an MP — member of Parliament — and Marianne, who is an architecture lecturer and married to a loving man. Jesse hasn't fared as well, barely paying his bills or child support.
Marianne has spent decades trying to escape her background. But now she's back in Nusstead, helping to care for her mother who is suffering from dementia. Consumed by jealousy at how well Helen and Marianne have done, Jesse tries to bully his former girlfriend into blackmailing Helen once again. If not, he will reveal Marianne's past as a blackmailer to her husband and emotionally fragile daughter.
"Stone Mothers" alternates in time as it explores the past and present of the three characters. The flashbacks of Helen are the most gripping as it reveals why she shut the mental hospital and why she is trying to change the outdated and cruel "lunacy laws" that allowed her parents to put her in an asylum when she was a rebellious teenager. But neither Marianne nor Jesse are interesting enough to sustain their stories. That former hospital renamed Park Royal Manor is hardly threatening.
The dense plot of "Stone Mothers" offers few surprises, dull-edged twists and uninspired characters. "Stone Mothers" is so unlike Kelly's 2017 outstanding outing, "He Said/She Said," a tense, gripping psychological thriller about a marriage and obsessions set against the background of a solar eclipse.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.
Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).
Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.
That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.
In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.
Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.
In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.
“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.
Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.
It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.
“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.
It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.
While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.
“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.
Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.
Jill Lawless contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
