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Criminals
Margot Livesey's early novel Criminals is the story of adult brother and sister Ewan and Mollie and their decision to rescue an abandoned child. But is the child being rescued by these two, or abducted? Where is the line between moral and criminal behavior? Livesey paints a thrilling and devastating portrait of two people blinded by need and the desire for betterment.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
21 people are currently reading
471 people want to read
About the author
Margot Livesey
35 books530 followersMargot grew up in a boys' private school in the Scottish Highlands where her father taught, and her mother, Eva, was the school nurse. After taking a B.A. in English and philosophy at the University of York in England she spent most of her twenties working in restaurants and learning to write. Her first book, a collection of stories called Learning By Heart, was published in Canada in 1986. Since then Margot has published nine novels: Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing Verona, The House on Fortune Street, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, Mercury and The Boy in the Field. She has also published The Hidden Machinery: Essays on Writing. Her tenth novel, The Road from Belhaven, will be published by Knopf in February, 2024.
Margot has taught at Boston University, Bowdoin College, Brandeis University, Carnegie Mellon, Cleveland State, Emerson College, Tufts University, the University of California at Irvine, the Warren Wilson College MFA program for writers, and Williams College. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute, the Guggenheim Foundation, the N.E.A., the Massachusetts Artists' Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts. Margot currently teaches at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Margot has taught at Boston University, Bowdoin College, Brandeis University, Carnegie Mellon, Cleveland State, Emerson College, Tufts University, the University of California at Irvine, the Warren Wilson College MFA program for writers, and Williams College. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute, the Guggenheim Foundation, the N.E.A., the Massachusetts Artists' Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts. Margot currently teaches at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
March 5, 2020
I had this book on my bookshelf for years…and was going on a trip and only wanted to bring paperbacks (easier to carry in my luggage) so I had already read two books by the author and liked them a lot (short story collection, Learning by Heart [written in 1986, read in 2002, gave it an A-]; novel, Eva Moves the Furniture [written in 2001, read it in 2002, gave it a A+]), so grabbed this one. Ugh, what a disappointment! Were they written by the same person? I disliked this book so much I am reluctant to read a book I got from her at the library, The Flight of Gemma Hardy (weighs in at 446 pages!).
There were six things I disliked about the book.
• The premise: a London banker uses the washroom in a bus station and hears what sounds like a baby crying in one of the stalls… Indeed, it is. It is all alone. He grabs the baby and walks towards the bus he is scheduled to ride on. He attempts to tell the bus driver that he found a baby but he has a slight stutter and can’t get his words out, and she is urging him to get on the bus so she can keep to her schedule, and so he says nothing, and sits down with the baby on the bus. Ri-i-i-ght. That sounds perfectly reasonable and sensible to me. After all it’s what I would do if I found a baby at a bus station! If I were high on some sort of hallucinogenic substance that is.
• There is a book within a book. He is reading a novel that his sister’s husband wrote, and so parts of the novel are in this novel, Criminals. This “book within a book” worked for me in a recent book I read, The Memory Police by Yoko Agawa, but not this time. Maybe because I was working up a slow burn on the preposterousness of the novel, Criminals.
• The writing was sophomoric at times.
• His sister, who plays a key part in the book, had major mental health issues, but it was entirely clear to me what triggered it. It was embedded in the “book within the book” and I think I got a chunk of it but not all of it. Maybe if I had figured that out, I would have understood why she was whacko.
• There are other plot lines besides the baby that are just unbelievable.
• A woman of Middle Eastern descent living in London is negatively stereotyped in the novel. I don’t believe in political correctness but describing the woman the way Margot Livesey did was a turn-off to me.
I probably should not have finished this book. But I had already read two of her works and liked them. Oh well. ☹
There were six things I disliked about the book.
• The premise: a London banker uses the washroom in a bus station and hears what sounds like a baby crying in one of the stalls… Indeed, it is. It is all alone. He grabs the baby and walks towards the bus he is scheduled to ride on. He attempts to tell the bus driver that he found a baby but he has a slight stutter and can’t get his words out, and she is urging him to get on the bus so she can keep to her schedule, and so he says nothing, and sits down with the baby on the bus. Ri-i-i-ght. That sounds perfectly reasonable and sensible to me. After all it’s what I would do if I found a baby at a bus station! If I were high on some sort of hallucinogenic substance that is.
• There is a book within a book. He is reading a novel that his sister’s husband wrote, and so parts of the novel are in this novel, Criminals. This “book within a book” worked for me in a recent book I read, The Memory Police by Yoko Agawa, but not this time. Maybe because I was working up a slow burn on the preposterousness of the novel, Criminals.
• The writing was sophomoric at times.
• His sister, who plays a key part in the book, had major mental health issues, but it was entirely clear to me what triggered it. It was embedded in the “book within the book” and I think I got a chunk of it but not all of it. Maybe if I had figured that out, I would have understood why she was whacko.
• There are other plot lines besides the baby that are just unbelievable.
• A woman of Middle Eastern descent living in London is negatively stereotyped in the novel. I don’t believe in political correctness but describing the woman the way Margot Livesey did was a turn-off to me.
I probably should not have finished this book. But I had already read two of her works and liked them. Oh well. ☹
December 18, 2015
What should've been a thrilling adventure was really a lengthy, boring story about the lives of brother and sister. The biggest "adventure" of the story is when Ewan, the brother, travels to visit his sister and on the way he finds an abandoned baby. The story is written from the point of view of Ewan, Mollie (the sister), and Kenneth (the abandoning father). The different points of view is really the only thing that makes this text interesting and stand out from other texts. The biggest turn off in this book is the old English style writing that the author uses. The writing style fits the setting in England but t gives the book a bland taste. I would not recommend this book to someone looking for a thrilling read because the climax just drags on until it isn't exciting anymore. Although this book was not one of my personal favorites, it wasn't a waste of time to read.
January 29, 2014
Confusing and implausible story. How stupid is this guy to kidnap a kid and then forget she even exists the whole weekend? And you leave her with your mentally unstable sister? Only finished it to find out how it ends. Boring.
September 3, 2022
The title of this novel is sadly ironic. Only one of the characters routinely breaks the law, and he is more of a bastard than the mastermind he fancies himself to be. The rest are decent human beings with personalities and thwarted desires. When one of them discovers an abandoned child, the event throws their weaknesses and their wishes into stark relief (and the characters themselves into turmoil).
I liked the "book within a book" element and its reflection on how making fiction can be a betrayal. I also enjoyed the incidental reference to Sunset Song. And Margot Livesey writes so well, I will put more of her work on my to-read list.
I liked the "book within a book" element and its reflection on how making fiction can be a betrayal. I also enjoyed the incidental reference to Sunset Song. And Margot Livesey writes so well, I will put more of her work on my to-read list.
May 9, 2023
Boy howdy, Margot! How I do enjoy your story crafting and your characters. Many thanks.
March 6, 2016
I didn`t quite like it. Between my own boredom towards the book to my own boredom towards any book that does not have vampires and werewolves, (I know, geek alert!!!) I didn`t quite enjoy it.
On the first few pages I already knew that I wasen`t really going to like the book, but I keep reading, and reading, and reading until... Done. The ending wasn`t really my thing and with my mind always going back to remeber to who was who and what words ment what, I seemed to have gotten lost right in the middle.
The middle though was the part I got really confused in. My mind seemed to just not understand (or didn`t want to understand) the problem and what was going on.
The start was the only part I really felt connected to and understood. The detail is nice and the action is very creative but my mind keeps going back to the score I keep in my mind.
You see, in my brain I keep a mental scale. The scale invols three sides. One side for when the book has too much detail and when a book has too much action. Right in the middle is the perfect balance, which I can`t really blame someone for not making it. It`s really hard. But for some reason I keep finding myself putting a lot of books in the "Forgot Spot". This is where I put all of the books who are made by authors who forgot about this scale and used eatheir too much, too little or it's just not a cool book. This book, in my opinion goes in the 'too much detail" area.
On the first few pages I already knew that I wasen`t really going to like the book, but I keep reading, and reading, and reading until... Done. The ending wasn`t really my thing and with my mind always going back to remeber to who was who and what words ment what, I seemed to have gotten lost right in the middle.
The middle though was the part I got really confused in. My mind seemed to just not understand (or didn`t want to understand) the problem and what was going on.
The start was the only part I really felt connected to and understood. The detail is nice and the action is very creative but my mind keeps going back to the score I keep in my mind.
You see, in my brain I keep a mental scale. The scale invols three sides. One side for when the book has too much detail and when a book has too much action. Right in the middle is the perfect balance, which I can`t really blame someone for not making it. It`s really hard. But for some reason I keep finding myself putting a lot of books in the "Forgot Spot". This is where I put all of the books who are made by authors who forgot about this scale and used eatheir too much, too little or it's just not a cool book. This book, in my opinion goes in the 'too much detail" area.
April 1, 2016
Ewan Munro - a decent, yet harried young banker - receives a peculiar and disturbing letter from his sister Mollie. Already poised on the brink of his own personal crisis and desperately worried about Mollie's troubled state of mind, Ewan travels north to Scotland to be with his sister in her time of need. Along the way, Ewan discovers a baby abandoned in a bus station rest-room and, unsure about what to do next, he takes the child with him to see his sister.
What follows next are the intertwining stories and motivations of five different people - and the poignant story of the many more lives caught up in binding nets of affection and responsibility, of sibling loyalty, romantic longing and maternal love. Ultimately, the question becomes, where does the line between doing the morally acceptable thing cross with the line that follows criminal behavior? And what is the true cost of having the best of intentions and acting on them?
First of all, let me say that this was an extraordinarily well-written story and I enjoyed it immensely. In my opinion, Ms. Livesey really captures the authenticity of her characters, and manages to make the reader care about them as people who are experiencing tremendous difficulties. That being said, I will say that this particular story seemed just the slightest bit far-fetched; although I would still give this book a definite A+!
What follows next are the intertwining stories and motivations of five different people - and the poignant story of the many more lives caught up in binding nets of affection and responsibility, of sibling loyalty, romantic longing and maternal love. Ultimately, the question becomes, where does the line between doing the morally acceptable thing cross with the line that follows criminal behavior? And what is the true cost of having the best of intentions and acting on them?
First of all, let me say that this was an extraordinarily well-written story and I enjoyed it immensely. In my opinion, Ms. Livesey really captures the authenticity of her characters, and manages to make the reader care about them as people who are experiencing tremendous difficulties. That being said, I will say that this particular story seemed just the slightest bit far-fetched; although I would still give this book a definite A+!
November 21, 2012
I enjoyed this story, very British, very Ruth Rendell-ish but without the murder, ordinary people coming a little unraveled, doing things a step at a time that don't seem terrible and before they know it they are on the slippery slope of unlawful and unethical behavior.
The story involves a woman going a little mad, her brother trying to help her, her long time mate who is an author and has recently left her, a nasty wastrel of a man, his girlfriend and her baby.
The brother finds a baby abandoned in a bus station restroom, he can't just leave it there but his bus is leaving so he scoops up the infant and brings it on the bus with him. His sister clings to the infant like a life-line but there is a mother missing her child. We follow the reasoning and choices each character makes and how these choices affect the other characters.
It is interesting how different personalities feel about their own wrong-doing. Some people can justify everything, other people take on the weight of every guilt they may or may not be responsible for.
The story involves a woman going a little mad, her brother trying to help her, her long time mate who is an author and has recently left her, a nasty wastrel of a man, his girlfriend and her baby.
The brother finds a baby abandoned in a bus station restroom, he can't just leave it there but his bus is leaving so he scoops up the infant and brings it on the bus with him. His sister clings to the infant like a life-line but there is a mother missing her child. We follow the reasoning and choices each character makes and how these choices affect the other characters.
It is interesting how different personalities feel about their own wrong-doing. Some people can justify everything, other people take on the weight of every guilt they may or may not be responsible for.
April 23, 2015
Alternating points of view tell the story of an adult brother and sister who slide from rescuing a baby to taking her. The sleazy boyfriend of the true mother attempts to work the situation for a profit. The brother isn’t fully aware of his sister’s deceit, but has his own issues with an insider trading offense which he slipped into because of love. Criminality as potentially part of anyone’s nature.
For writers:
A solid example of using multiple points of view to increase tension and psychological insight, without sacrificing cohesion or clarity. Read more
January 24, 2008
Mildly interesting story of a man from Edinburgh who finds a baby on the bus station restroom floor as he embarks to visit his sister who is suffering from depression. Unbeknownst to him, he is being watched by the baby's father, a low-life who is after easy money. The man's sister, ends up falling in love with the baby and refuses to turn the baby to the police. I thought I'd feel some compassion for the baby's father, but that never came. The baby, Grace's mother, is the most compelling character! The ending wasn't predictable, but it also came as no surprise....
July 10, 2015
Read a Livesey last year ("Eva Moves the Furniture" a hand-me-down from a cousin), and then read a good review of her latest in EW, so decided to check out more of the back catalog. A very concise little story of an baby, stolen from its mother, "abandoned" by its father, rescued/kidnapped by a brother and sister whose emotional lives are already in shreds... Some of it was intriguing. Did not like, however, the "fictional inserts" (written by the sister's ex-lover, read by the brother), thought they were flat and boring. An intense little chaotic book. Very emotional. But a little uneven.
December 23, 2008
Don't bother with this one - - I did not care for this book at all - very wordy and would float from one thing to the next all the time . It was all over the place . I did not find any of the characters likable at all it was difficult to get interested in and hard to finish . No redeemable qualities in any of the people in the book - it's a strange book with unlikable,even dispickable characters that you as a reader care little about .
March 7, 2010
Edwin, the protagonist, fines a baby in a bus station bathroom. His sister, who he's going to visit, falls in love with the baby and doesn't report it to the police. Kenneth, the deadbeat boyfriend, who left the baby in the first place, asks for a ransom to keep quiet. The birth mother is beside herself. With a predictable outcome.
May 3, 2011
This is a gripping novel, and not just because one senses trouble coming from the beginning. A group of ordinary people, and one loathsome rat, find themselves increasingly out of their depth. Livesay plots it perfectly, but her real skill is in limning characters whose human particularities come together to remind us how fragile our lives are, and how one thing so easily leads to another.
June 5, 2007
Sort of like Ruth Rendell - not as gruesome, but just as page-turning. A literary psychological thriller. Great author.
May 28, 2008
Margot Livesey writes great psychological suspense, with lots of black humor (my favorite kind).
December 9, 2009
This was one of those books where good decisions were almost non-existent.
January 6, 2010
I'm not sure why I keep reading Livesey's novels because I seem to be disappointed over and over again. But again with this one: the premise. So good! The novel itself, not as much.
November 18, 2014
First time reading a book by a Scottish author. The language was slightly different, but the twists and turns in the book provided for so much fun and suspense.
January 9, 2024
Novela de ficción donde un hombre se encuentra un bebé en el suelo del baño en una estación de autobuses de camino a visitar a su hermana mentalmente inestable. A partir de aquí comenzarán a entrar en juego varios personajes que transformarán la historia de forma extraña: el padre y madre del bebé, el exnovio de la hermana, el crush del hermano, etc.
Lo mejor de la novela es la ambientación, en esa Escocia rural y salvaje donde una granja puede convertirse en el mejor lugar donde cometer un crimen.
La trama de la novela ha sido un tanto confusa, las acciones de los personajes eran erráticas causando malestar en el lector al no poder predecir que es lo que va a suceder a continuación. Los personajes no parecen tener ningún trasfondo, son planos en sí mismos y con un rasgo distintivo que lo van explotando a lo largo de la historia. Son personajes con los que cuesta empatizar.
No es una novela que recomendaría a priori.
Lo mejor de la novela es la ambientación, en esa Escocia rural y salvaje donde una granja puede convertirse en el mejor lugar donde cometer un crimen.
La trama de la novela ha sido un tanto confusa, las acciones de los personajes eran erráticas causando malestar en el lector al no poder predecir que es lo que va a suceder a continuación. Los personajes no parecen tener ningún trasfondo, son planos en sí mismos y con un rasgo distintivo que lo van explotando a lo largo de la historia. Son personajes con los que cuesta empatizar.
No es una novela que recomendaría a priori.
April 7, 2025
Margot Livesay is one of those writers whose books I try to ration; these are books I keep in the "book cellar" for when I am ready.
I uncorked this one and ahhhhhh, what a pleasure. Evan, an awkward accountant in London knows that his sister Mollie up in Scotland is going through a rough patch. An artist, she's going through a break up. She's been leaving messages and reluctantly, he heads north to spend time with her.
On the way, through a series of befuddled missteps, he acquires an infant. Is it a rescue or a kidnapping? Is Evan's unwillingness to handle confrontation stronger than his sister's passionate instant attachment? What of the thug and his cowed girlfriend whose baby is missing?
Propulsive, thoughtful, unexpected: all the usual Livesay hallmarks.
I uncorked this one and ahhhhhh, what a pleasure. Evan, an awkward accountant in London knows that his sister Mollie up in Scotland is going through a rough patch. An artist, she's going through a break up. She's been leaving messages and reluctantly, he heads north to spend time with her.
On the way, through a series of befuddled missteps, he acquires an infant. Is it a rescue or a kidnapping? Is Evan's unwillingness to handle confrontation stronger than his sister's passionate instant attachment? What of the thug and his cowed girlfriend whose baby is missing?
Propulsive, thoughtful, unexpected: all the usual Livesay hallmarks.
July 12, 2021
I was fascinated by this rather odd little novel and continued reading to see what the outcome was going to be. Finding a baby in the Gent's toilet, banker, Ewan retrieves her and ends up taking the baby to his despondent sister's remote home in Scotland, which gives his sister a new lease of life. The bloke who left the baby in the toilet was despicable and his attempts at trying to make use of the situation was horrible. I wanted a bit more from the baby's mother but still felt her reactions were not totally unreasonable given her perhaps questionable immigration status. An interesting interplay of various characters and social status.
November 21, 2025
Livesey explores how ordinary people slip into extraordinary compromises, and the result is both tense and thought‑provoking. Her prose is clean and precise, and she has a gift for showing how small decisions ripple outward into chaos.
It’s not flawless—the pacing sometimes falters, and the psychological underpinnings aren’t as finely tuned as in her later work—but the novel still grips you with its atmosphere of unease. Livesey makes you question what “criminality” really means: is it the act itself, or the quiet betrayals we justify to ourselves?
It’s not flawless—the pacing sometimes falters, and the psychological underpinnings aren’t as finely tuned as in her later work—but the novel still grips you with its atmosphere of unease. Livesey makes you question what “criminality” really means: is it the act itself, or the quiet betrayals we justify to ourselves?
September 8, 2020
You've never read anything like this!
This is the most bizarre and enjoyable dramedy of errors I've ever read. There are many incongruous twists that turn out to seem completely logical by the end, even the book within the book. I found myself cheering on practically all the various CRIMINALS at one time or another. I can't think of the last book I've read where I got into the mind of most of the characters. This novel is perfect for someone looking for something unique.
This is the most bizarre and enjoyable dramedy of errors I've ever read. There are many incongruous twists that turn out to seem completely logical by the end, even the book within the book. I found myself cheering on practically all the various CRIMINALS at one time or another. I can't think of the last book I've read where I got into the mind of most of the characters. This novel is perfect for someone looking for something unique.
November 18, 2020
This is a bizarre mean-spirited book. Two stars is generous, actually. I almost abandoned it in the middle and I am pretty sorry I finished it. There is something disjointed and incomplete about the character development; it is impossible to feel for anyone but Joan and even there, it strains credulity to imagine her passivity. The way in which the characters interact and respond to each other makes no sense. I’ve rather liked other books by Margot Livesey this one is just nasty.
May 5, 2017
As close to "riveting" a book as any I've read. Wonderful story, interesting, flawed characters, insights into human motivations, good writing. Almost everyone in the book is sympathetic, dealing, in their separate ways with what life deals out to them as best they can. And the blurbs on the back cover are accurate.
October 2, 2022
This book is full of cringe-y, awkward situations. It was an unexpected page turner--I never could figure out what the heck was happening until it was all said and done. I read it in about 24 hours--good book for a long plane/train ride.
October 23, 2025
Just two stars for me .. it was mwah. In the beginning I did’nt like the book. There was a story in a story and I did’nt care about it. There was a lot in this book what was’nt nessesary to tell. Still, I wanted to know how the story ended.
July 12, 2017
A stolen baby, insider trading, madness, the Scottish Highlands....it is all here. Margot Livesey continues to be one of my favorite writers.
March 7, 2019
4.5 stars.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews