Wolf Trap
Consuelo Roland
Jacana Media
Review: Linda Curling
It’s been several years since the publication of Lady Limbo, the first novel in the Limbo Trilogy.
There Consuelo Roland introduced us to some of the darker aspects of the world wide web. A shady world where women wishing to conceive children the natural way,are paired up with and “serviced” by men with certain desirable physical or genetic qualities.
A straightforward enough transaction in this day and age, but one with long-lasting implications, and being the holders of other people’s secrets puts the facilitators of such couplings in a position of immense power.
There is also the sordid underworld where people prey on young girls, viewing them as commodities to be collected or traded, and once purchased the buyer can use these young bodies for their own baser desires.
When we meet Paola Dante in Lady Limbo, her husband has just vanished – for the first time; a few months later, he vanishes again – apparently for good, and Paola is left in limbo: neither wife, widow nor divorcee.
By the end of the novel, Paola’s life has been turned upside down and she has become an adoptive mother to Simone in the process.
Wolf Trap picks up the story where Lady Limbo left off. Any parent can attest to the difficulties of parenting a pre-pubescent daughter, even when the daughter is one’s own blood with a shared and familiar family history.
Paola has been thrust into such a responsibility with very little preparation, and has her work cut out for her trying to navigate the pitfalls of single-parenting a secretive child who is emotionally scarred by a traumatic past.
Moreover, Paola needs to protect Simone not only from the sexual perverts of her past but also from a group of religious zealots with seemingly sinister intentions who have appeared out of the blue. All of these hovering predators seem to be circling ever closer, waiting for the right moment to strike.
The plot is chillingly credible, and as with Lady Limbo, much of the action takes place in Cape Town.
If, like me, you have read numerous books since Lady Limbo it is well worth re-reading it before tackling Wolf Trap.
Then we need to wait for book three to find out how the story really ends; let’s hope Roland doesn’t keep fans waiting in limbo for too long.
