book reviews , different studio guests each week. Join us every Thursday between 12 and 1pm on Radio Scilly 107.9fm or log on to radioscilly.com.

Missed any programmes? See below for list of guests, books and other details discussed.

Monday 21 April 2014

Andrew Taylor - A Stain on the Silence





Brian Lowens review which was read out live on the bookshow 17th April 2014.

Not really my sort of book I am afraid. Perhaps I could say, without being sexist, that it is rather one for the ladies.

The story is a complicated one involving two young lads at boarding school and their subsequent lives as adults.

The story keeps switching from their childhood to their adult lives, quite unexpectedly sometimes in the middle of a chapter, but this is not a problem.

Carlo, one of the lads, comes from a quite well off family but James’s parents are away in the USA so Carlo always invites James back to his house for the school holidays, where he is treated as one of the family.

All goes well until James starts having an affair with Lily, Carlo’s Mum. Also, Felicity, Carlo’s younger sister develops a crush on James.

Then moving on to their adult life, when James is now married, Lily is in a hospice dying of cancer and implores James to find her lost daughter Kate. This he starts to do without first telling his wife, Nicky, so when she finds out she assumes he is having an affair with Kate and so she walks out and leaves him. 

This is when it all got rather boring for me as James tries to track down Kate, when I would have thought his first priority would be to explain things to Nicky and get her back. The story rambles on with several twists to the tale. I stuck it out to the end, wanting to know how it finished only to be disappointed with the inconclusive and sudden unexpected end.

I am afraid I did not enjoy this book, but I expect some people would as it is well written.

No comments: