In the Cornish folk tale of the Mermaid of Zennor, a mysterious young woman sometimes spotted at her parish church is followed home one day by a young man and never seen again. A group of local sailors later claim to find her when she reappears to them as a mermaid. She is “the beautiful woman who everyone loved but nobody knew”, writes Tony Parsons of the folk figure, whom he recasts as a femme fatale named Clementine in his latest novel, Who She Was.
This Cornish thriller — full of murder and delicious plot twists — is set in the fictionalised town of St Jude’s (St Mawes), across the bay from Polmouth (Falmouth), and makes a point of being very Cornish, even though Parsons lives in Hampstead, and has done since 2004.
