Novel reviews

QUITE frankly any book with a flower on the front and characters with names like Marguerite Louise de Coligny de la Rochelle is not one I am ever likely to pick up at the bookshop.

So I make no apology for saying I disliked Judith Guild's latest novel.

The characters were spoilt, fickle and straight out of Dynasty, the plot contrived and quite pointless and the setting totally in the realms of fantasy.

Valerie, the heroine, is a vet engaged to the two-timing, cocaine-snorting, money-fiddling Teddy.

Not surprisingly Valerie chucks Teddy when millionaire recluse Wyn Conrad comes along with ex-polo playing horses and pots of charm.

A sub-plot involving Wyn's ex-wife and his employee was supposed to add intrigue but again was totally unrealistic.

However if you like to indulge in this Mills and Boons style romance, where everything is sorted out at the end, the heroine gets her man and the baddies get their co-uppance then you'll probably enjoy this fairly meaty read.

Certainly the writing is smooth and flows well with dollops of sex at satisfying intervals and there are elements of comedy to keep the reader entertained.

This is not a book I would recommend, but then again I was a little biased!

SARAH BAYLISS

Dead Right

A young white man is found battered to death behind the pub where earlier that night he had an argument with a group of Asian youths.

The youths are soon in the police cells but Chief Inspector Alan Banks suspects the case is far from closed.

He discovers Jason Fox had a secret life that involved a leading role in a white power organisation and arguments with his business partner.

While investigating further the detective has to deal with the collapse of his marriage and the realisation his university-age children are growing further away from him.

In many hands this mix of detection and domestic would have been clichd, but not when the prose is written by Peter Robinson.

Dead Right is one of Robinson's late 1990s books, re-issued following the success of recent hardbacks In A Dry Season and Dry Bones That Dream.

This Pan paperback is just as assured as the two breakthrough books, a rich, rewarding and very readable police procedural.

DAVID KNIGHTS

Forget Me Not

Emma Blair's new novel published in paperback by Warner Books begins in early 20th century Devon.

Young nave Tim Wilson is excited by, but in awe of, voluptuous West End actress Elyse Davenport who arrives to stay at his mother's modest guest house while appearing in theatre in Torquay.

He indulges in youthful fantasies about her, but sees her as his chance to further his career as a junior reporter when he interviews her for the local paper.

Tim's ambition is heightened when he falls in love with pretty young debutante Kathryn Coates, whose devious mother Ruth will stop at nothing to keep them apart.

However the experienced but equally vulnerable actress has very much more to offer.

Forget Me Not is romantic fiction which moves smoothly between the very different worlds of all its characters, Tim's sheltered existence and that of 'theatricals' and high society, against a background of ever threatening World War.

MARGARET MALPASS

The Dagger in the Crown

The Dagger in the Crown follows the same detective novel formula as every other, but it has one added twist - the time in which it is set.

Elizabethan Scotland is about as far a setting as you can get from modern-day detective novels, which gives the book an added differentiation that is greatly needed within this genre.

Alanna Knight's book tells of Tam Eildor, the newest arrival to the Scottish queen's court after he was found roaming the caste grounds with no memory of himself before that point.

However his adventure is far from over as he proceeds to uncover a series of conspiracies that have been brewing around the queen and those close to her, culminating in an exciting climax and a somewhat far-fetched finish.

The Dagger in the Crown, although enjoyable in parts, did touch on the tiresome and the ridiculous.

The story is a good idea but I would only recommend it to those looking for a light read with little behind it.

LUCY QUINTON

Flying Under Bridges'

I found Sandi Toksvig's £6:99 paperback lacked a backbone, as it struggles to engage the reader without success. The two main characters lack a certain substance, as does the general storyline.

Eve Marshall has lived in Edenford all her life, bringing up her two childre Shirley and Tom. Her best friend from school, Inge Holbrook, returns to Edenford and Eve finds herself glad of the company, especially after her's Dad's death and Mum's stroke.

But Eve does something terrible and ruins Shirley's wedding - with the groom dead, it's less than likely to go ahead.

Eve writes to Inge from prison, looking back on her life, on her happiness and on her friendship with Inge.

I was bored and unimpressed by this story, and I fail to see where the 'humour' or 'intrigue' lay.

HANNAH WILSON