Book review: Complex tale had too many plots

Romy Hausmann is a solid writer but 'Darling Mine' felt a little too contrived.

• Darling Mine 
• Romy Hausmann 
• Quercus, €18.99

Darling Mine is described as a novel that ‘picks up straight where Romy Hausmann left her fans’ in 2020 with her novel  Dear Child.

I was concerned that I may have been at a disadvantage, having not read Dear Child. 

However, I soon discovered that it is in theme only that the books are similar and that is where the comparison ends. 

Translated from the original German by Jamie Bulloch,  Darling Mine is quite a layered and complex tale of trauma, child abduction, and the impact of dementia on a family.

Julie Nowak, a teenager, vanished from her home in 2003. Now, 20 years later, a true crime podcast team contacts her father Theo Nowak claiming to have new evidence and a possible lead. 

But Theo Nowak has progressive dementia, with his memory of that tragic event confused and often beyond his grasp. 

Sometimes, Theo returns into his mind as the highly successful surgeon and the director of a renowned Berlin vascular clinic he once was. 

In moments of lucidity, he lives in hope that one day he will uncover the truth behind his daughter’s disappearance. 

Speaking with the podcast team might be his last chance before it’s too late.

Liv and Phil, the team behind the podcast, discuss the case, bringing it to the attention of their audience, but they need Julie’s family on board to take it to the next level. 

Liv is appointed as chief investigator but, it is quite clear, from an early stage, that something is off kilter in her relationship with co-host Phil.

Sophia, Julie Nowak’s younger sister, is very much against her father’s involvement with the podcast. She is dealing with her own personal issues and is clearly someone struggling with life. 

After the passing of Vera, her mother, she has been left as the main person involved with her father’s condition and the stress is having an impact on her. 

Sophia does not want her father exposed on the airwaves, believing that the unearthing of old memories will affect his memory and push him further away from her.

Meanwhile, Liv is gathering information and is confident that she is getting closer to the truth but will her digging cause more upset or can this mysterious case be eventually solved?

Darling Mine highlights the difficulties associated with progressive dementia from the perspective of the individual themselves. 

As Theo shifts between being coherent and lost to the disease, there is a click, letting the reader know the presence of this switch in his thinking. 

His words become more confused, his memory is scattered, and he reverts to happier days with his beloved wife, Vera. His memory of Julie and Sophia are those of mixed emotions. 

He remembers the good days but also recalls the teenage behaviour of his children and the frustrations he felt, as a parent, at that time. 

As the clock ticks his sense of urgency is palpable and quite affecting as a reader.

However I did struggle with the plot. Told from multiple points of view, all clearly marked, the story takes quite a number of far-fetched twists. 

Aside from Theo, whose character was sensitively depicted, I had absolutely no empathy for any one individual as the story unravelled. 

There is no question that Romy Hausmann is a solid writer, but Darling Mine just felt a little too contrived, with an outcome that left me quite apathetic. 

Dear Child is now a series on Netflix and Darling Mine, with the right director would make a really chilling psychological drama but on paper it just didn’t hit the right mark for me.

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