BOOKS: SWEET Vengeance by Una-Mary Parker is out this month (Headline). What a pile of utter bilge this is.
The plot follows the mysterious disappearance of Arabella, a fashion designer. Thus is spawned a yawnsomely dull tale which crawls along at about the pace of a snail with a knee injury.
In addition, every description of the disappeared leads you to be thankful that she's not in the novel in the first place. The characterisation is plain embarrassing working class folk being distinguished by a propensity to use the word 'right', for example.
Excrutiating tedium is only broken up by a sex scene which is laughably appalling. This novel makes Mills and Boon look like George Orwell. What's happened to Arabella? I couldn't really give a monkey's.
In Conspiracy of Paper (Abacus) by David Liss, Benjamin Weaver is a private detective in 18th century London.
He is investigating the death of his estranged father, a notorious stockbroker.
He is drawn into the world of the stock exchange and the shady dealings of the aristocrats who built their fortunes on it.
The author draws a convincing picture of the ruthless nature of the exchange which lies beneath the genteel exterior of its participants.
Debby Salmons
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