POPULAR fiction
Saturday May 20 2006
A French Affair By Catherine Daly Poolbeg, €9.99 Evie Kinsella and her daughter Holly are looking forward to their holiday in France with Evie's friend Monique.
But Evie and Holly's holiday doesn't go quite as planned when a series of coincidences beings Evie face-to-face with someone important from her past, someone she has kept a secret.
Her best friend Monique has her own secret too - a dangerous one that she won't even tell Evie about. When Monique is badly beaten up in her own home, Evie has to unravel a mystery that may involve her own life being in danger .
Daly has a good storytelling voice with a talent for shaping a story. Set in the Dordogne region of France, A French Affair has it all - hot sun, beautiful people, love affairs, murder, mystery, and, above all, a happy ending.
Consequences By Anna Dillon Poolbeg, €9.99 This is the sequel to last summer's The Affair which told the turbulent story of a love affair from the three sides of the equation - that of the wife, the husband, and the lover.
This one picks up the story, as the title suggests, to follow the consequences of the affair to their inevitable conclusion. The novel is divided into three sections, with each section being told from the perspective of one of the key characters - Robert, the cheating husband; Kathy, the deceived wife; and Stephanie, the heart-torn mistress.
The affair has ended and Robert must try to gather himself together to return to his wife and try to make amends. Meanwhile, Kathy is trying to revaluate her life; she realises the only person she can rely on is herself and that means taking back control. Stephanie, the mistress, must make a life-changing decision. The novel climaxes on New Year's Eve when all three come face to face with each other and decisions must be made.
Consequences shows the heartbreak an affair can wreak on all sides of the triangle. The novel humanises the cheating man, sheds light on the quandary of the mistress and evokes the heartbreak of the betrayed wife. It eventually concludes that that there are no real winners.
Anna Dillon is the penname of (shock, horror) an Irish male writer! The Affair was one of last year's bestsellers. This follow-up, Consequences, is also a winner and is to be filmed starring Helen Hunt and James Brolin.
