Pine, book review. (Francine Toon)

Cold, dark, lonely and foreboding with a dash of the spirit world, pretty much sums up, Pine by Francine Toon; a debut novel that garnered much press on its release last year but, what are you really in for?
Lauren (Oren) lives alone with her father, Niall - who drinks too much – in a rundown house on the edge of a pine forest. Being only ten, she relies on her father to not only feed and clothe her but get her to school, love her and keep her safe, which he falls short on some of the time.
It's Halloween and she and her father are driving through the snow to go trick or treating, when a woman runs fleetingly in front of them, or so she thinks, but it isn't until they return and it happens again that Niall pulls over and offers assistance - taking the frail looking woman home with them.
By morning the woman is gone and Niall has forgotten the incident but Lauren has not, and so she starts asking questions, questions her father doesn't like, so Lauren turns to her tarot cards.
Her mother, Christine walked out when she was tiny, never to be seen again, and we learn about her bohemian nature, how she lived (or tried to), free of the burdens and constraints of materialistic life, spiritually, and start to question what might have happened to her. Did she just up and leave, or was there something more sinister going on?
There are those in town that know more than they're letting on, those that suspect Niall of killing her, after all, there's no shortage of places to hide a body in the forest, and then there's the strange goings on: Lauren’s bedroom is completely tidied one day, people see a woman in white but hours later have no recollection of the event – Lauren’s father, her friend from school and a local in the pub all experience that illusion. Then, Ann-Marie, a girl from the village, disappears; a girl who babysat Lauren and was last seen in her father's truck!
Toon’s writing is very descriptive and equally convincing and leaves you cold, lonely, suspicious and on edge; it is also smooth - a strange word ‘smooth’ but accurate all the same, because ninety percent of the book has just the one tempo; which is not a bad thing.

Whether it's Lauren getting lost in the woods, Niall inebriated, the woman in white appearing or the police arriving after Ann-Marie’s disappearance, the tempo remains much the same, and as much as I like the fast, furious action packed spikes and slow plateaus of some books, I think here - whether intentional or not - smooth suited the quiet, empty, haunting-ness of the story, reminding me of Gabriel Tallent's, My Absolute Darling in its descriptive nature (although that one’s far too repetitive), and Eowyn Ivey's, The Snow Child, for its sense of isolation.
Will Ann-Marie and Lauren’s mum be found? Will Niall stop drinking? Who or what is the woman in white? are all questions you’ll have to read the book to find out, but Pine is a good first novel, one I can recommend, so grab a copy and enjoy, especially as it's only getting colder here in England with snow already falling.

Three stars.

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