The Mermaid's Purse

by Katy Gardner

Cass Bainbridge is being stalked. New job, new home, new life: Cass has moved to Brighton to start over as a lecturer at the university. But she's already acquired some unwanted baggage. Someone's watching her, they've even taken photos. She's being followed, too. And then there are the anonymous and threatening emails she's receiving. With an unknown assailant attacking students on campus, Cass fears for her life. Is she to be the next random victim? Or is there a more sinister reason she's been targeted?

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Adult Fiction, Mystery, Drama, Crime

310 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2003

About the author

Katy Gardner is a British author, best known for her novel Losing Gemma, which was turned into a two part mini series for ITV1 in 2006. As well as writing, she also teaches Social Anthropology at Sussex University.
-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Adelaide Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5* Um drama psicológico de fácil leitura com mistério e suspense e com um fim inesperado

[Lucy McLaurin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well this was a bit of surprise. I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting - even after reading the blurb on the back!

I found Cass to be a very abrasive character. I think I understand why she came across like that with traumatic life events happening to her. I felt like she was on a collision course all the way through.

[Ewcia Stadler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historia 4.5 ale język słabo…..

[Célia Gil · Rating 3 out of 5]

O Presságio da Sereia, Katy Gardner, traduzido por Luísa Feijó, é um livro com uma história cativante do início ao fim. Lê-se compulsivamente, pela sua intensidade, mistério e suspense… Com um final completamente inesperado.
Cass é uma professora de História que vive em Londres com o seu companheiro de há quase dez anos, Matt, e que decide aceitar uma proposta para assistente universitária em Brighton. É quando muda para Brighton, que todos os seus problemas começam.
As memórias dolorosas de um segredo que acabou de destruir o que restava da sua já problemática infância e mudou a sua vida para sempre começam então a assombrá-la. E a crescente sensação de que está a ser observada, numa altura em que violentos ataques a estudantes estão a ocorrer em pleno campus universitário, transforma o seu receio num imenso pânico que ameaça sugá-la. Será ela a próxima vítima? Ou haverá uma razão mais sinistra para que tenha sido precisamente Cass a ser transformada em alvo? Além disso, Brighton não é uma escolha natural para uma mulher com um já antigo medo do mar. Cass pode ter tentado encerrar um capítulo da sua vida ao deixar Londres, mas cedo vai descobrir que alguns elementos da sua nova existência são igualmente perturbadores. Segredos que tinha conseguido esquecer durante toda a sua vida são agora descobertos e revividos pela protagonista deste livro. No percurso de Cass, existem dois alunos que vão ter um papel muito importante na revelação deste segredo. Ao sentir-se pressionada, a professora vê-se obrigada a contar que teve de abandonar um filho, fruto de uma violação, quando tinha apenas 15 anos. Este é um livro capaz de nos transmitir as mais variadas emoções. E, como nos é dito na capa do livro, “Os segredos mais profundos arrastam consigo correntes sombrias”.
Esta obra fez-me realmente pensar nos segredos que todos escondem e não querem que sejam descobertos. No entanto, isso nem sempre acontece! Por mais voltas que a vida dê, se existir alguma coisa do passado que intimide, mais tarde ou mais cedo, vem ao de cima. Neste livro, pode observar-se a reação de pânico que o ser humano tem quando pensa que vai ser “descoberto”. É algo que a todos ultrapassa, algo que nunca se consegue nem se vai conseguir controlar. Porém, por outro lado, a revelação pode constituir o primeiro passo para a libertação, uma autêntica catarse.

[Annet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Katy Gardner knows how to write good stories. I read Losing Gemma some years ago, which was such a great story, I had to read other books of Katy Gardner. Being unable to find them in the bookstores,I ordered this one online. This one is a bit of a gloomy story, with the main character struggling in her new place and situation as a teacher at university away from her home in London. You keep wondering, common, pick yourself up and make something of it! You know there is a troubling past en you know things are wrong. In the course of the book things fall in place. Losing Gemma was the better story, but I will certainly read more of this author. She has potential.

[Dinah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an OK read. It took forever to figure out what the book was about. I was afraid it was going to be one of those books that ties everything up in a too neat bow at the end. It was not. So it had that going for it.
Cass takes a job in a small coastal community, leaving her long-term boyfriend in London. Pland to see each other every weekend do not work out. Then odd things happen. Is it her imagination fueded by the fact that she is not used to living alone? She loses things, forgets things, falls behind at work. Is she falling apart? Or is something else going on?

[Dorothy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wrapped up nicely but that was after 250+ pages of perhaps the most unbearable main character I've ever come across. I couldn't stand living with her total mess of a life in minute by minute detail. Granted, there were valid reasons for her complete incompetence as a person but I was physically tense trying to turn pages.

[Joana Gomes · Rating 4 out of 5]

É, de facto, um daqueles livros que agarra um gajo!! E a maneira como está escrito torna a leitura muito fácil.
Um pormenor sem importância: adorei a caracterização dos punks nos anos 80!!

[Luna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absolutely zero mermaids, despite the title! Would not recommend for this reason!

Also the writing broadly is... not great. I have an uncorrected proof copy, so I'll let some things slide for that reason (eg one of the characters names switches between Don and Ron, there's a few typos here and there), but as a whole, the story simply isn't superb.

The main character also refers to herself as being middle aged, despite only being 38. Please stop.

Cass, our lead, moves from London to Brighton for a teaching job at a university. She's an anthropology lecturer (as is Katy Gardner, the author). She leaves behind a would-be fiancee, Matt. They don't seem to get along. At all.

She meets Julian, a fellow lecturer, who flirts with her despite Cass' repeated statements about how overweight she is. Alec, a student, gets on her goat, and she is immediately taken by another student, Beth.

Oh, and when she was 15, Cass was raped and she secretly gave birth on a beach on her mother's wedding day. She left the baby behind, as you do.

Cass believes she's being stalked. Is she? Maybe! She's easily spooked! She also misplaces her mobile phone a lot, receives weird phone calls with breathing on the other end and a shit load of bizarre emails that just say YOU.

Alec, coincidentally, lives across the road from her. Meanwhile, Beth gets kicked out of her foster home, and she essentially invites herself to live with Cass. Beth is... a lot. She quickly becomes obsessed with Cass in a Single White Female manner and takes over her life. Both Alec and Beth report being abandoned as babies.

Ya see where this is going, right?

Well, Beth falls into the psycho lesbian trope, as she thinks the two of them are in love. There was a very weird scene where Cass thought of kissing Beth, but... nothing happens. Alec was being weird because he knew Beth was the psycho lesbian and wanted to stop her. It all ends with Beth drowning in the ocean and Alec rescuing Cass.

Neither of them are her child, by the by. Beth made up the foster story and Alec was left behind on a train.

[StephenWoolf · Rating 2 out of 5]

A brave attempt at something a bit different from the usual crime story (which I'm not sure I could sum up all that well).
- academia + its themes: here, history & how it is made -however, wasn't particularly well carried off & woven into the story
- main character: a fat woman in mid30s with a tendency to comfort-eat. And she doesn't land anyone by the end of the story! Not bad.
- it side-stepped the obvious -although that was kind of devious because the (unimpressed) reader (that I was) was set up to expect just that
- some things remained unaccounted for -Julian: friend? Foe?: maybe the author didn't care enough to let us know and forgot about it -fine by me!

Was not convinced by the other voices that would pop up randomly.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book and the main character grew on me, I would say to persevere if you are not sure. The main character is a university lecturer and her life is in a bit of a mess, the reasons for which unfold as the story progresses. She therefore makes some unwise decisions at work which ultimately endanger lives. A few twists at the end that I didn't see coming but the main one was fairly obvious. The book should come with a few trigger warnings which are also spoilers - so I will hide this bit.... subjects of rape and teenage pregnancy and birth are detailed in the book.

[Carla Casimiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um romance surpreendente e envolvente, que mistura mistério, memória e identidade de uma forma viciante. Katy Gardner consegue criar um enredo intenso, cheio de segredos e reviravoltas, que nos prende sem esforço.

A escrita é cativante e as personagens têm profundidade, com dilemas que nos fazem refletir sobre escolhas, passado e destino. O ritmo é equilibrado: mantém-nos sempre curiosos, mas também dá espaço para absorver os detalhes e a atmosfera.

Uma leitura que me marcou e que recomendo vivamente a quem gosta de histórias densas, com emoção e suspense psicológico.

[Kaitlyn (ktxx22) Walker · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 64%. There is one storyline that I was interested in and that was Cass’ flashbacks to her being a troubles youth. Everything else in this book was wildly mundane and boring times a hundred. I didn’t like one character in this and I really didn’t care to find out the mystery. Usually I power through just to know but I really don’t care.

[Isla Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a bit unrealistic - I found myself feeling there were a fair few cliches. The plot was readable enough, although not expressly engrossing as such. Its an alright read but not worth getting for more than a quid or two, thereabouts, I reckon. An alright read.

[Britta Heinemeyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't able to connect to the main character and it felt that she had too many problems. A bit less would have been more in my opinion.
It was easy to read though and had a good idea, I just felt it could have been executed better.

[Esmee Schoenmakers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heel raar boek, maar heb t alleen gelezen omdat ie toevallig van de schrijver van anthropology and development is. De hoofdpersoon had t steeds over dr chaos wel relatable, maar ja de schrijver kan t beter bij studieboeken houden denk ik.

[Sreader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, main character a bit dim , had to skim to get to the end.

[Shirley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book quite depressing and struggled through it to find out what happened to Cass when she was younger I had guessed

[Rerehau · Rating 1 out of 5]

No. Just no.

[German pooper69 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn’t like this book, I just wanted it to end the whole time. The main character was honestly just too pathetic

[Babete · Rating 4 out of 5]

( Biblioteca )

[Jane · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bücher, wie dieses, sind der Grund, warum ich eigentlich nur Bücher von bekannten Autoren, mit sehr guten Kritiken und/oder Empfehlungen von Freunden lese. Das hier war eine ziemlich große Ausnahme für mich. Ich las die Kurzbeschreibung und wollte es sofort lesen.

Dazu muss man sagen, dass die Kurzbeschreibung einen verrückten Stalker verspricht, der eine Frau terrorisiert. Klingt spannend.
Haken an der Sache ist nur, dass die Kurzbeschreibung nicht gerade treffend ist. Ich habe hier eine bessere: "Frau von Ende Dreißig erzählt über ihr Leben, ihre Konflikte mit der Familie, ihren Bindungsschwierigkeiten, ihrem Job an der Uni, wo irgendwie alle Studenten waise sind. Ahja, und fünf Minuten kommt eine Art Pseudo-stalker und erschreckt sie, was aber schnell wieder weichen muss, um dem Mutter-Tochter-Konflikt Platz zu machen."

Wirklich, ich finde solche verfälschten Kurzbeschreibungen unglaublich. Klar, muss man das Buch irgendwie verkaufen und da hat man eben das einzige Thema genommen, was einigermaßen an Spannung verspricht, trotzdem sollte man den Leser nicht so täuschen.
Weiterhin versucht die Autorin mit kleinen Täuschungsmanövern irgendwie Spannung zu erzeugen, was aber total misslingt, weil man sich sowieso alles schon denken kann und dann gegen Ende zwar nicht das eintritt, was man denkt, dafür aber eben die unspektakulärste Alternative überhaupt.
Anmerken möchte ich noch, dass das Cover sehr irreführend ist. Es handelt sich bei der Hauptperson immerhin um eine fast vierzigjährige, übergewichtige, dunkelhaarige Frau, die nach eigenen Angaben schon immer übergewichtig war. Dagegen ist nichts zu sagen, doch diese Masche mit dem Cover und der irreführenden Kurzbeschreibung ist meiner Meinung nach wirklich unverschämt.

[Mag · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Mermaid's Purse when I was 15 years old and had little experience with more adult books. until then i only had read books that were in the fantasy and the teenage diary genre.
It overwelmed me! The story is so compelling that it only took me three days to read it. I empathised with the main character right away and could feel her emotions under my skin. The line in which the story was written is: nothing is what it seems.
Kathy Gardner writting is an accomplisment and captivating. She balances very well the descriptions, the action and also the backgrounds and the flashbacks.
i encouraged anyone who enjoys a good thriller and a thought provoking reading to search for this book.

[Gaëlle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this story. It was not as good as Losing Gemma, another book by the same author, but it was compelling nonetheless. Cass Bainbridge is not an easy character to like: she's middle-aged, dowdy, spineless and a bit weak, and yet we are taken in her story and start to feel for her.

As the plot unfolds, were are given more and more insight on other subplots which take more and more space in the story. The balance, then slight shift between plots was fairly well-crafted and turned "The Mermaid's Purse" into a captivating thriller.

[Karschtl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've expected something completly different when I picked this book from my shelf. More of a thriller than this drama, which reminded me a lot of the movie "Single, white, female..."
Of course the reader notices from the beginning who Cass should better look out for. She herself Needs almost until the end of the book for this. Then it get's a bit suspenseful (also with the story about Cass' own memorable incident in Brighton), but not a book that I would book in the crime section of a bookstore.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned that things are really not always as they seem and that there is always hope.

[Donna Hewitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read years ago. Need to read again. Loved it

[Sandra Dias · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interessante. Mas gostei bastante mais do outro livro desta autora.