You’ll want to be wary of who asks you this question at Carlyle Library. This may be a leafy small town in America, apparently quiet and uneventful, but things are not quite how they seem. Laura Sims’s second novel follows Looker, about a woman’s descent into madness, and continues to explore themes of obsession and the dark reaches of the psyche.
Two women who work at the library are drawn together like moths to a flame, they don’t like each other but can’t resist playing with fire. Margo is calm and controlled and does her job with efficiency. The other librarians look to her when there’s a problem to solve such as awkward clients like the Friday Man, who uses the internet for his own gratification. Only Margo isn’t Margo at all. She’s hiding out in Carlyle and her real name is Jane. Previously she was a nurse but now she’s wanted by the police in connection with a series of unexplained deaths at the hospital she used to work in.
A serial killer on the run, Margo thinks she’s found a quiet place to get away from the past and so far she’s keeping it together. That is until the arrival of Patricia.
Patricia is at a crossroads in her life. She’s a wannabe novelist but so far she’s had no success. She needs a real job – you’ve got to eat, after all. Patricia has also come to Carlyle for a fresh start and to get away from a stale relationship in Chicago. She’s not given up on her dreams and this is a chance to recharge her batteries. The job of reference librarian is perfect for that. It’s a dull job, initially, with plenty of time to contemplate writing, but then she meets Margo. Soon they’re keeping a close eye on each other.
Strange things begin to happen at the library. An old woman dies in the toilet. Is that just bad luck or could it be something more sinister? The police don’t seen too worried about it but Patricia has a writer’s instinct for a story. As the day-to-day life of the library goes on with the usual interaction with the clients, Patricia and Margo begin meeting up for coffee and chatting. Their verbal jousting commences as a kind of foreplay for what is to come.
This is a deliciously dark and twisted tale loaded with a humour you can’t help feeling guilty about as you revel in it. It’s clear Sims, who really is a librarian, reflects on the value of libraries in the community as a social hub, a refuge from the wider world and almost a sanctuary for some. We get a sense of this from the well-drawn minor characters who garner our empathy and colour the narrative. It’s not just a place for books, particularly for the marginalised. It’s a vision of an ordinary library that tracks to the off-kilter, with daily absurdities exaggerated for comic effect, but then heads towards the dark urges of people and amplifies them to scary levels.
As a study in obsession and the fluidity of the boundaries of good behaviour under pressure, How Can I Help You is insightful and credible. Patricia and Margo are masterfully drawn characters, perfect foils for each other. Naturally, as the novel opens, we are appalled by what we know about Margo and naturally sympathetic to Patricia but as the story unfolds we are left pondering the similarities between the women, the convergences in behaviour, rather than the differences. The story becomes more disturbing, even shocking, but so enjoyable. We all like to think we are in control of our lives but what drives the darker urges becomes harder and harder to resist.
Patricia allows Sims to explore the artistic urge. How far will a creative person go for their work? This is fascinating. There are the good kind of urges and passions; creativity, invention, determination and perseverance. Then there’s there’s a line it’s possible to overstep which leads to obsession, delusion, narcissism, transgression.
The storytelling is sharp and pacy, and How Can I Help You is a quick read at 224 pages. As someone who reads a lot of dark but unrelenting crime fiction this was a pleasing palette cleanser. As long as you take to the duel between the two women you will love this.
Also see Sister of Mine by Laurie Petrou for a psychological thriller about two women tied by their actions.
Verve Books
Print/Kindle
£6.99
CFL Rating: 4 Stars
