A Helping Hand: Celia Dale

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Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without written permission from this blog’s author is prohibited. With her beloved husband, Stanley, long deceased, Mrs Fingal has missed the little attentions of a male companion – a role that Josh is only too willing to pick up.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. You know what old folk are, they get used to things being just as they like them, just as they’re used to. A Helping Hand is a remarkably compelling slice of suburban horror, ideal for fans of Patricia Highsmith and Shirley Jackson – it really is that good.

It's a good thing that I am one of those readers who doesn't need to find something likeable with the characters in a book because with only one or two exceptions, the people involved in this story are absolutely vile.

In fact, I wondered if you might have read it already, especially as Celia Fremlin’s name keep popping up as a potential soul sister to Dale. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Most of the characters in this novel are over 60 years old so they do repeat themselves to great effect. This story about an elderly lonely widow going to live with a couple who befriend her and who becomes increasingly helpless and isolated as a result of their machinations is well worth reading.Dale shows what can be done with a crime novel, that it needn’t be bloody murder, bank heists, or kidnappings. As Graziella bonds with Mrs Fingal, encouraging the old lady to build up her strength by walking again, she senses that something is decidedly off. In essence, Maisie treats the old lady like a child, confining her to bed for long periods and scolding her for the little accidents and spillages that occur. As Jenn Ashworth’s introduction to this new edition notes, Dale’s novel is tangled in the ‘the cold-blooded economics of care’ and the fact of how ‘easy it is for control to seep into our relations’.

D. James in her writing and next time I read any of her work I will go in with slightly different expectations.It’s an icily compelling tale of greed and deception, stealthily executed amidst carefully orchestrated conversations and endless cups of tea. Valancourt Books has recently published new editions of two of Celia Dale's novels, A Dark Corner and this book, A Helping Hand. I found Sheep's Clothing a far better and more subtle novel and depiction of quiet crime but this novel delivers the groundwork. For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin.

Mrs Fingal takes a liking to Mr Evans, and soon the suggestion is made that she move out of Lena's house in Reading, and into the room at the Evans's recently vacated by Auntie Flo. After all, the Evanses don’t want Lena getting a whiff of what’s actually happening back at the house in case she disturbs things.At first, all is sweetness and light at the Evanses following Mrs Fingal’s arrival; but slowly and stealthily, the tone beings to change.