A short review of The Shining Girls

Lauren Beukes' The Shining Girls is a beautifully exploited closed loop of time and a howdunnit carried off eloquently by three fascinating central characters. 

In a way, neither Dan, Harper nor Kirby are the main or supporting players, all three get a carefully drawn story that intersects with the other two much as time intersects in the House, where for unknown reasons the front door can open onto various years in Chicago's life. Despite their differences, Beukes gives each a fascination that stops you wanting to rush through one of their chapters to get on to one of the other ones'. None of these characters is wholly original - Dan the jaded, divorced hack is a particularly familiar image - but each is invested with enough warmth and personality to make their POV interesting and their disparate voices means the story can unfold without a lot of inner monologue expositioning.

The beauty of the time travel in the book is that the constrictions of messing with time become the clues in the mystery that Kirby is trying to solve, as well as in the mystery you're trying to solve, that of the House itself. And the convolutions of time travel don't stop this from being a simple story as well, a family story, a love story and a serial killer thriller. The fact that you don't get all the answers by the end could be annoying to some, although the last hints give you plenty to work with and the lack of a classic detective-style wrap-up only made me like the book more.