Rosa Thorn is pleased when she gets a part in TV series that is to be filmed in Cambridge – she will get a chance to see her son Danny, who is now at Billings College. Also she will be able to visit with her childhood friend Perry . It is six years since she has seen Perry and he is now married to April, who has two children. She is interested to see how Perry is coping with domesticity, never his strong suit.
But when she arrives in Cambridge she is quickly aware that all is not well with Danny. He has broken up with his girlfriend Julie. Julie however, is unable to accept the break-up and seems always to be around, seriously hampering his pursuit of the tantalisingly elusive Stella. And when Frankie, Perry’s mother arrives, it firmly puts the cat amongst the pigeons. Frankie is a nightclub singer who totally neglected Perry when he was a child, hence Perry and Rosa being so close as he lodged with Rosa’s family every time his mother took off on a tour, a frequent occurrence. Frankie seems to effortlessly wrong-foot April who seems unusually snappy and out of sorts, possibly not helped by the engaging Stella who flirts with Perry when invited to supper.
Apart from the domestic problems, there is a rapist at large who has been preying on the female students; and the new master Sir Hugo Mortimer is planning to scale down the Arts Departments starting with Theology, which is vigorously opposed by the chaplain Dominic Tipton. Sir Hugo has also experienced some weird bizarre happenings around him, which seem to be escalating. Into this mix comes Dominic’s nephew Lucas, a god-like young man who sets the ladies hearts fluttering - even the elusive Stella seems to fall under his spell, much to the consternation of Danny.
So Rosa finds her visit fraught with conflict on all sides, as this volatile mix of emotions and ambitions fester, cumulating at the opening of the College’s performance of Othello, in which both Danny and Stella have starring roles.
Good plotting and characterisation. A real page turner.
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Lizzie Hayes
Earlier books in the series are Thorn and The Art of Dying.