I normally avoid crime novels these days, but this is something different. A murder, yes, but this is just an excuse for looking at four "friends" at an upmarket retirement village. A very, very upmarket retirement village. These people are all upper middle class patrons, even Ron who pretends to relive his career as a Union boss. Plenty of clubs and courses to enjoy there. But why conversational french for eighty year olds? This is typical of the dry humour that punctuates this highly enjoyable book. Just go to page nineteen: "My daughter Joanna, has a therapist, although you would be hard pushed to know why if you saw the size of her house".
We get a lot of hints along the way about the previous occupation of lead investigator Elizabeth, may age at seventy six. She tests herself (an early warning signal) by writing down a question (like the registration of a someone's car) that she will hide and then (always) answer correctly in two weeks time. We all need something to keep our brains active, but this would be beyond me.
Later on in a prison cell a concrete chair is bolted to the floor. "It would be the most uncomfortable chair (he) had ever sat on ...... had he just not made the flight ....... on Ryanair". Despite the light touch of the excellent prose, the reason, for me, it didn't make five stars is the ending. I still cannot remember who dunnit. But does it really matter?
This was one of those books where I might have given up after the first thirty pages. But in the end I stuck with it and I'm still not sure if I should have. There are times when it seemed to be unremittingly traumatic for Margery Benson. She is ill prepared for her expedition to the other side of the world in 1950. But she does have with her the much younger and more confident Enid Pretty. She is a much more engaging character with a huge personality and helps with the occasional uplifting experiences. The two compliment each other as their friendship grows. Their time in the north of New Caledonia alternates with the British contingent in the south and another male character that all helps to give the story some momentum. i had to ask my wife about lacrosse boots as she had played at school that extraordinary game.
Graham Swift is up to his old "tricks" again with this novel about magic. The plot that revolves around Ronnie, Evie and is Jack is a kind of "now you see it - now you don't". It is certainly a patchwork quilt of timelines, could it all be called an "illusion"? Especially at the end?
Ronnie Dean's childhood sees him as an evacuee during the second world war. An experience that leads to his time as a magician at an end of the pier show in Brighton in 1959. Sometimes this is Evie's story as she looks back to those days, but the switches in character and time is unnerving at the start. Somehow we get a broad brush outline of the plot with the rest of the book filling in the detail.
The prose is up there with the best of Graham Swift's books, not quite as good as "Mothering Sunday" but still smart and suspenseful. Just like the magic.
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