Something Might Happen (2003) is a novel by Julie Myerson about a murder in a small English seaside town and how it affects the community as well as friends and family of the murder victim. The story is not a whodunnit although it incorporates various elements of the crime novel. The first person narrator is Tess, a 39-year-old osteopath and mother of four who was also the victim's closest friend.
This article presents lists of literary events and publications in 2003.
Julie Myerson is an English author and critic. As well as writing both fiction and non-fiction books, she is also known for having written a long-running column in The Guardian entitled "Living with Teenagers" based on her own family experiences. She also appeared regularly as a panellist on the arts programme Newsnight Review.
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human being with malice aforethought. This state of mind may, depending upon the jurisdiction, distinguish murder from other forms of unlawful homicide, such as manslaughter. Manslaughter is a killing committed in the absence of malice, brought about by reasonable provocation, or diminished capacity. Involuntary manslaughter, where it is recognized, is a killing that lacks all but the most attenuated guilty intent, recklessness.
One Monday night in early October, Leonora Daniels ("Lennie") is brutally murdered on her way home from a PTA meeting. Without sexually assaulting her, her killer cuts her heart out of her body and disappears with it, leaving Lennie's mutilated body there in a car park near the seafront.
The first reaction of the townspeople is shock: They have always considered the place a safe town where you do not even have to lock up during the day. However, they easily adapt to the changing circumstances. More people, most of them police, means more business, so opening hours are extended and new stock is ordered.
It soon turns out that the police do not have any clue as to the identity of the murderer. Human nature is longing to put the blame on someone -- anyone --, so Darren Sims, the 17-year-old village idiot, is chosen as their scapegoat, but the police, hopeful at first, have to clear him of any suspicion.
In the Bible, a scapegoat is an animal which is ritually burdened with the sins of others, then driven away. The concept first appears in Leviticus, in which a goat is designated to be cast into the desert to carry away the sins of the community.
And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats: one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for Azazel.
The murder and the hunt for the killer upset the lives of two families in particular: On the one hand, there is Alex Daniels and his two young sons; on the other hand, Mick and Tess and their four children are also badly affected by what is happening in the wake of the tragedy. Alex, who is a furniture designer, insists on making his wife's coffin himself. Tess, whose youngest is only five months old, is curiously attracted to Ted Lacey, a young man working for the police who is trained to offer 24-hour psychological support to Alex and his boys. At the same time she is confronted with her own atheism when she is asked by one of the kids where Lennie now is -- in heaven or at the morgue. Mick, Tess's husband, half-heartedly plans to leave his family, no matter how much they are already suffering.
A morgue or mortuary is used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification or removal for autopsy or respectful burial, cremation or other method. In modern times corpses have customarily been refrigerated to delay decomposition.
Tess's 11-year-old daughter Rosa tries to cope with the unexpected and violent death by claiming she can still see Lennie and communicate with her. On the night before the funeral, Rosa ventures out on a groyne, seemingly to be closer to her dead maternal friend, but falls into the water and drowns, while her mother is committing adultery with Lacey in a beach hut not far away.
A groyne is a rigid hydraulic structure built from an ocean shore or from a bank that interrupts water flow and limits the movement of sediment. It is usually made out of wood, concrete or stone. In the ocean, groynes create beaches or prevent them being washed away by longshore drift. In a river, groynes slow down the process of erosion and prevent ice-jamming, which in turn aids navigation. Ocean groynes run generally perpendicular to the shore, extending from the upper foreshore or beach into the water. All of a groyne may be under water, in which case it is a submerged groyne. The areas between groups of groynes are groyne fields. Groynes are generally placed in groups. They are often used in tandem with seawalls. Groynes, however, may cause a shoreline to be perceived as unnatural.
No great changes occur after that. Mick, Tess and their three remaining kids move away from the seaside town while Alex marries again. Tess wonders briefly if she will ever see Ted Lacey again.
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