Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall: Review

Mike loves his ex-girlfriend Verity - and he’s one hundred per cent certain that she still loves him, even though she has not only left him but is now getting married to someone else. 

But that’s all  just a more elaborate, extreme version of their private game - isn’t it? A sexual game they called the Crave, in which they would go out separately-but-together, Verity would wait for a man to make a move on her, and at a prearranged signal Mike would step in to send him on his way.  Apparently, this would give them both a thrill. A bit strange, yes, but basically fairly harmless.

Mike’s confident that whatever Verity says, her marriage to the eligible Angus is all a part of the game - a new version of the Crave. He just needs to understand the rules and figure out what Verity expects him to do next.

This story is narrated by Mike, once a bitterly neglected child taken into care at the age of ten, who has grown into a very successful adult with a highly paid job in the City and a beautiful house (in which he fully expects Verity soon to be living with him). Because he knows her better than anybody, and he knows that however often she says she doesn’t want to be with him, she doesn’t really mean it. Her signals and coded messages prove that. Mike and Verity are different from other people, their love is more important than anything else and it’s worth any sacrifice.

It often feels like Mike’s running only on obsession and barely suppressed violence. And inevitably, it’s going to erupt at some point.

Our Kind of Cruelty is a fascinating read, as we inhabit the mind of Mike, who’s frequently terrifying, but not a bad person; he is motivated entirely by love. He’s flawed - but so is his beloved Verity, his idealised woman. And he’s deeply vulnerable.

As the story progresses it becomes a courtroom drama and a trial by media; suddenly, other people are privy to the details of Mike and Verity’s relationship -  and standing in judgement. And not only on Mike. (I loved, if that’s the right word, the feature from what was obviously the Daily Mail, with its unhealthy obsessions with how much people earn, what their houses are worth, and the numerous ways in which women fail to live up to arbitrary standards.)

How complicit is Verity in what has happened? Where does guilt lie - and how is that decided?

Really putting the psychological into psychological thriller, this was a brilliant read which is highly recommended.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!