[.ca] Let It Shine (ISBN 0747266387)

From Amazon.co.uk:
Ada Williams is looking back on a life that has somehow gone wrong. She has all the power and wealth that she once thought but has hardened her heart after losing the one man she really loved, and is all alone except for her grasping, hostile son Peter. He in turn is impatiently awaiting her death and his inheritance of her fortune. In contrast, Sylvia and Jim Bolton and their family in nearby Blackburn live a hand-to-mouth existence, but have their lives enriched by the love they share and the friendship of the neighbours. Events take a shocking turn for all protagonists one night in 1932, when Sylvia's children find her being throttled by a stranger who has broken into the house. Fire and death destroy the family. But the reader wonders what the sinister connection is between this tragedy and Ada Williams and her son, and why the Bolton family's grandfather cried out for Ada in a fever after the catastrophe. Soon Ada's youthful mistakes assume great importance for them all. It is the fashion in which Cox draws together all these disparate strands that makes her storytelling so involving, along with her narrative skills: The door was open, and that in itself was odd. Always, after they'd gone to bed, their mam would close the parlour door. With her heart thundering in her chest, Ellie looked into the parlour--and gasped in horror at what she saw... Cox's committed, meticulously detailed novels have achieved a considerable following for her powerful storytelling acumen, but the real secret lies in the characterisation of the protagonists. She is able to ring the changes most satisfyingly, so that even if her readers find the elements that they've enjoyed in previous books, there is always sufficient ingenuity in fashioning new plots that makes each book a fresh experience. Let It Shine finds all the standard Cox ingredients in place. --Barry Forshaw