Christine Magan’s debut novel, Tangerine, came out in 2018 and met praise from avid mystery fans. Magan describes her book as “Sweltering, Claustrophobic, Unreliable,” and I would certainly agree with all three, but maybe not in the way she would want.
A 2018 Hitchcock-ian style mystery, a good read if you like this genre and the work’s unique writing style. The plot of this mystery follows two young women who haven’t seen each other since a mysterious falling out in their final year of college. Alice Shipley has moved to Morocco with her new husband, trying to escape the cloud of tragedy surrounding an event she can’t quite remember. But then out of the blue her old friend Lucy Mason turns up to visit, dedicated to restarting this relationship no matter what is in the way. Lucy’s arrival brings new energy and conflict to Alice’s bland life and is the trigger for the story.
The book switches POVs every other chapter between the two main characters. Normally, I’m a sucker for this in books, and in parts of Tangerine, it really paid off. Seeing the contrasting points of view helps get the tension rising and lets the mystery be revealed in an interesting way.
However, sometimes, and this was one of the book’s biggest faults, the POV switch was unclear and would cause the story to become disjointed. There were multiple times in the story where I went back to check what point of view I was currently reading.
This plays into another issue I had with the book: the occasionally weak characterization. Despite being written in first person I was often left wondering what the protagonists actually wanted. This affected how I read the story because the two women are supposedly best friends but they only start talking about their college days multiple chapters after they are reunited.
This writing also affects the other characters. It’s unclear what is really important and it seems like the side plots are there to act as space fillers in the book. I would love to just ditch Alice’s husband and go more in depth with her and Lucy’s friendship.
But do not get me wrong, I did enjoy reading this book and found myself reaching for it when I had free time. Some things I liked were the general plot and storyline, the “flashbacks”, the descriptive writing, and finally the ending.
The descriptions of Tangier were very effective, probably due to the fact that Magan actually spent time in Morocco before writing this book. It was easy to picture the hustle of the city, as well as the empty desert nights. This writing style carries over to the characters internal narration and we do know what they are feeling even if we don’t know exactly why. As we reach the end of the book the paranoia is at an all time high, to the point where it’s upsetting to read.
I love flashbacks, always have, always will, and it applies to this book. The flashback sequence came just in time to keep me hooked and was definitely my favorite part of the book. It pushed the story to a new level and really helped complete it. It cancels out the weak characterization in the beginning and finally lets you know the characters.
And finally the conclusion. It’s pretty ambiguous, which fits the vibe of the story. But it still managed to close up the story lines and leave me feeling satisfied. Overall this book is good, I give it 3.5 Spartan heads, but I think it caters to a very specific type of reader. If you like mystery and an open to interpretation ending I’d totally recommend it.
