PREY

A two-part story presenting a multigenerational tale of strong women facing deadly challenges.

Harriet Yorke’s architect father, Peter, inherited Calla House from his parents, but after he buys himself a cottage in Cornwall, he gives the spacious Belsize Park home to his daughter. Talented Harriet had hoped to study at the Slade School of Fine Art, but when Peter becomes gravely ill, she takes a job at the BBC and converts Calla House into three flats, keeping the topmost for herself. As World War II engulfs Britain, her nightly walks with her terrier worry her tenants, but Harriet never realizes that her greatest danger is not from the Nazi Blitz but from a neighbor whose childhood trauma led to a dangerous obsession with women’s hair. More than 50 years later, Harriet’s granddaughter, cartoonist Libby Jerome, has further divided Calla House into five flats. Like Harriet, she’s close to her tenants, so when she discovers asbestos throughout the house, she hires builder Reggie Brownlow to remove it, prioritizing safety above profit. The dislocation caused by the residents’ removal turns out to be more than an inconvenience, threatening deadly harm to Libby and her tenants alike. Norman interweaves the two plots so deftly that Libby’s story echoes Harriet’s without duplicating it. And she adds elements that make each story true to its era: the looming threat in Harriet’s story is global warfare, in Libby’s, environmental contamination. But the real toxin that sends chills up the reader’s spine is intergenerational trauma.

Like London’s buses, Norman’s latest is a double-decker treat, especially for fans who like a little danger.