Catriona Ward Makes the Perfect Suspect
Ever since “serial killer” became an official term following the slayings of Jack the Ripper, we've held a collective fascination with the concept. Outliers to the human development in every way, I believe what makes them so terrifying is their ability to pass for relatively normal people while committing atrocities in their own time, as seems to be the case in Catriona Ward's The Last House on Needless Street.
The story begins by introducing us to three characters living together in a fairly run-down house at the end of the titular street. There is Ted, a man who spends most of his time drinking in front of the television and dealing with memory gaps. Alongside him is his teenage girl Lauren who isn't allowed to go outside anymore, and their house cat Olivia who enjoys reading the bible.
All three of them are bound together by a shared secret, and though about as dysfunctional as a family can be, they somehow maintain a balance and make it all work. However, this carefully curated world comes under threat when a new neighbour, Dee, moves in.
Ten years ago, a young girl by the name of Lulu disappeared from the local beach, and Ted came under suspicion. He was able to provide an alibi at the time, but the suspicions never really died around him. Dee is Lulu's sister, and she is absolutely convinced Ted was responsible for it all, taking it upon herself to wrangle the truth out of the darkness and into the light.
Needless to say, the task proves to be marginally more complicated than she had anticipated, and the more she learns about the people in the last house, the more it becomes obvious few things, if any, are as they seem.
Studying a Deranged Mind in The Last House on Needless Street
I believe for most people, myself included, the part about serial killers meriting study is their psychology. I'm not holding out hope we will ever really be able to provide a foolproof explanation for what seems inexplicable, but I still believe it's important to move forward in this regard as much as possible, if only for the chance to prevent more of them from existing in the future.
The story is told by Ward through three different points of view, being Ted, Olivia and Dee. I'll touch more on the latter two in a little bit, but for the moment I would like to focus on Ted himself, the man of the house and arguably the more remarkable of the three protagonists.
From the very first pages we meet him, he makes a repulsive first impression and his general mental incompetence straight away creates a feeling of unease, a tense of atmosphere which throws conventions out the window. As the story goes on and we learn more and more about him, it's difficult to say he becomes a more appealing character, but he does become more understandable.
We are treated to numerous flashbacks to Ted's childhood, and as you might imagine they are the sorts of scenes which made me feel sorry for him more than anything. I was worried for a moment Catriona Ward would use his tragic past to justify his actions, but to my relief she focused entirely on explaining them instead, leaving the final judgment to us, the readers.
There is one aspect to his story which I felt elevated him even further as an object of interest, and it's the amount of detail his relationships with other people over the course of his life are described. They are all insightful and instrumental in helping us get a clear picture of why he ended up becoming the way he did.
A World of Broken Expectations
On one hand, the story is indeed a study of the mind of a serial killer, but don't go off thinking it's all the book has to offer. There are two other viewpoints to this whole thing, being the cat Olivia and the new neighbour Dee, who is quite intent on exposing Ted for who he really is, and they make the whole experience much more lively.
For starters, Olivia was a very interesting choice for a point of view, giving us a unique outsider perspective through an original and pleasant voice. She always gives us the opportunity to see events under slightly different angles, and while I cannot personally vouch for how cats think, I feel like Ward didn't land too far off the mark.
At the same time, we have Dee's storyline, which essentially reads like a detective thriller where a citizen takes a case in their own hands. She has her own history, having dedicated the last eleven years of her life searching for her missing sister, and she comes off as an admirably strong and resilient woman who adds a touch of much-needed goodness in the world of the novel.
As the various narratives keep on mixing and matching, the plot becomes increasingly complex, and it felt like there were more twists than I could possibly count, successfully defying my expectations time after time. This heightened pace made the plot fly by before my eyes to the point where it was over before I realized it.
I was also quite impressed by how Catriona Ward managed to juggle all the storylines and revelations at such a high pace while keeping everything crystal clear and easy to follow, but of course, not without a bit of effort on the reader's part.
The Final Verdict
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward is an excellent horror novel which mixes in elements of family drama and thrillers, telling a wild and unpredictable story through three perspectives while providing captivating insight into a tragically deranged mind.
If you're looking for an unconventional horror story capable of trumping your assumptions and keep your eyes glued to the pages all the way through, then I'd recommend you check this novel out.
 | Catriona WardCatriona Ward is an American-born British horror novelist who began her career with short fiction stories, Sentinel and Lula-Belle, after which she began publishing novels, such as The Dreaming Isle, Cursed, Little Eve and The Last House on Needless Street. She was the recipient of the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award, as well as the 2016 and 2019 British Fantasy Awards. |
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