Debut novelist Frances Peck explores how much one can bend before breaking plus how much mending is possible after rot has set in.
As The Broken Places opens, deft first-time novelist Frances Peck introduces a handful of anxious characters who’ve had better days. They’re harried, bothered by scheduling minutia or gruelling work deadlines. They nurse grudges and resentments as they dredge up earlier scenes from home and office.
The author spends over a hundred pages setting the scene. She’s a whiz at showing historical baggage that’s ages-old but still playing out in the present day. Charlotte’s husband Tayne is a package of “contained rage” and her sourly adolescent daughter Sidney broods and judges and lies. Unlike their photogenic home, the Stedmans are a mess, a disaster area well before the earthquake.Article content
And while interview excerpts at chapter endings indicate that at least one person survives, Peck excels at keeping readers taut with anticipation.