Assessment:
In this predictable crime novel set in Canada, Mazie Reynolds gets out of an abusive marriage by killing her husband and going on the run with her 12 year old daughter, Ariel. Readers may find Mazie’s situation too contrived – what are the chances that the stranger she meets, Norman Day, is a criminal defense lawyer? While the novel might offer hope to victims of domestic violence, characters lack depth and development.
Date Submitted: June 12, 2016
I can't add much more to all reviews already written...difficult to read, yet immensely compelling. I actually burst into tears reading the final courtroom scene, surprising myself with how involved I had become with the characters and their harrowing story. To know this happens to real people .... there are no words ....
Told in third person, MAZIE BABY hooks you first with its descriptive sentences and believable characters, who right off the bat you can imagine being your own next door neighbors. Then it hooks you with the truth. Author Julie Frayn does not beat around the bush when she describes Mazie’s fear when her husband comes home and loses himself in liquor and rage; nor does she shy away from building up the tension in the house, from the second Cullen gets upset until Mazie, now bruised and bleeding, tucks Ariel into bed.
While the story isn’t definably a happy tale, it is an honest one that makes you fly through the pages in the hopes that Mazie makes it out free of her past in the end. The story truly is a tale of how “sometimes innocent people must defend themselves” and that opening up yourself to trust again is the best way to mend a battered soul.
The dialogue is raw, the character development happens at a life-like pace, and the story line – though depicting a desperate mother – never wavers on the edge of fantasy. Though fiction, MAZIE BABY could arguably be a firsthand autobiography for someone.
Mazie Baby by Julie Frayn is the 2015 Indie Reader Discovery Award Winner for Literary Fiction. The awards were announced by author Melissa Foster at the CreateSpace booth at Book Expo America in New York City.
The judges on the IRDA panel included top people in all areas of the publishing industry, in concert with IndieReader’s trusty reviewers. Judging was based on the quality of writing and the originality of the story.
Mazie Baby by Julie Frayn has been named Best of Indie 2014 by Suspense Magazine.