Of course I haven't stopped reading, though it's over three weeks since I put a review on here. I have written three but they are forthcoming on Shiny New Books- I'll post links when they appear on there. My other reading, though, has been less than inspiring, which is partly why I've kept quiet. But it's not just that. You'd think being in strict French lockdown would leave more time for writing, but I've felt strangely blocked, and so absorbed in keeping in touch online with friends and family that the days seem to whizz by without much being achieved. A week ago I also lost a very dear friend, someone I'd known since I was thirteen. He had been ill for some weeks, so it wasn't unexpected, but it's strange how ill-prepared you can turn out to be in this situation. And how much it does your head in.
Anyway I thought I'd just tell you about the three non-Shiny books I've read in the past couple of weeks.
Our House by Louise Candish was a Book Club choice. One of our members had read and enjoyed it, and wanted to share it with the rest of us. There are six of us in the group, and five of us managed to meet on Messenger video. It was good to see everyone's faces! I would say the book met with a mixed reception. It's a psychological thriller and the main driving force of the plot is an extraordinary scam. A woman comes home after a weekend away to her attractive, valuable London house, to find it occupied by a couple of total strangers. All her furniture and belongings have been replaced by those of the new family, and what's more they prove to have perfectly valid legal documents to prove that they have bought the house. What's even more, they tell her that she has signed the contract, as had her rather dodgy ex-husband, though this is the first she's heard of it. Apparently this very complex fictional scam was actually based on a real event. It sounded intriguing and I was looking forward to reading it, but somehow it didn't really grab me, partly because I didn't find any of the characters interesting enough to be sympathetic or even delightfully wicked.
This one must have been a 99p Kindle buy. I've read and reviewed a couple of Christabel Kent's earlier novels - one of them here - so was looking forward to this one which I think came out last year. She too specialises in psychological thrillers, and What We Did is no exception. The central character here is Bridget. She's in her forties, runs a successful couturier shop and has a happy home life with her devoted husband and son. But one day, into the shop comes her old violin teacher, Andrew Carmichael, bringing with him a teenage girl he is clearly grooming. All the memories of her own terrible teenage years come to the surface, and before much time has passed something takes place which will have huge repercussions for Bridget and her whole family. This was a well told story, and wholly credible, but I found the high level of tension and the disturbing revelations a bit hard to take.
I'd heard of the redoubtable Victorian novelist Mrs Humphrey (Mary Augusta) Ward but never read any of her books. I saw a review on a blog I read regularly and was intrigued. I got a free edition in 2 vols on Kindle. This is a serious novel. Set in a remote house in the Lake District, it concerns the relationship between Alan Helbeck, the forty-year-old owner, and a young woman. Laura Fountain, who is twenty years younger. A powerful attraction develops between the two, but there's a problem. Helbeck is a devout Catholic who has a chapel in the house, supports the local nunnery, and is on friendly terms with a two local priests. Laura on the other hand is a convinced anti-Catholic. Despite their differences they become engaged, but all does not run smoothly and there's a rather shockingly unhappy ending. I was rather enjoying this throughout volume one but it became too tortured and sad in the second volume and I ended up skimming. Not sorry I read it but I won't be returning to Mrs HW any time soon.
