Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki: book review

Woman No. 17 (2017) is set in the Hollywood Hills in contemporary times.

Author Lady Daniels wants to concentrate on her next book – a memoir – so she hires a live-in nanny to take care of her three-year-old son Devin and her mute 18-year-old son Seth. Seth is Marco Green’s son – a previous relationship – and Devon is Karl Daniel’s son. Although Lady is separated from her husband Karl, he keeps in touch.

Esther (‘Call me S’) is hired. Esther is a 22-year-old artist who quickly fits into the household, even becoming a confidante to Lady Daniels. But she has secrets about her real motivation for taking the job.

Narrated by Lady Daniels, she tells how Esther works her charms to become closer to all family members. Esther narrates too, and she tells about Everett – whom she used to live with – and she describes her fondness for the boys Seth and Devon, and even for Karl’s sister Kit Daniels, who is a well-known photographer.

Kit calls Lady Daniels, Woman No. 17, after a photograph of her.

Lady eventually gets a bad feeling about Esther. She confides in Karl about firing her, but he thinks she is imagining things – there’s no evidence about anything she has done wrong. So what is this ‘feeling’ Lady has, or is it jealousy because her sons like their nanny?

The style is erratic: sometimes evocatively written, and sometimes too simplistic. This is a quiet, eerie book. The characters are not outrageously unbelievable, but they are not wholly credible either – none are likeable. They are disturbingly strange. Just creepy.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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