Twenty Questions for Gloria
Gloria Ellis is in an interview suite with a detective and her mum; what series of events brought her here? Martyn Bedford lets the reader into Gloria’s world and her inner thoughts bit by bit. Detective Ryan’s questions tell us what happened but it’s Gloria herself who reveals why the mysterious Uman Padeem had such an impact on her.
Bedford has created very real characters for his novel from Gloria’s detached parents to her effervescent best friend Tierney, even Uman’s dog is a character most people will recognize. The writer deftly handles shifts in tone from the starkness of the police station to Gloria’s retelling of the exciting start to her adventure with Uman and their blossoming love story. Uman seems to appear at a point in Gloria’s life when she is starting to question her own identity and her place in the family, his confidence and charisma cause her to act out of character and to want to leave behind her current situation in search of something more satisfying.
It is to Bedford’s credit that he keeps Uman as unpredictable to the reader as he is to the naïve Gloria.
