Uncle Paul

When Meg and Isabel were still children, their half-sister, Mildred, married a handsome, charming man whom the girls called Uncle Paul. Paul Hartman turned out to be a bigamist. He had married a wealthy woman and tried to murder her, but fled the scene before verifying that she was actually dead. She recovered and set the police on his track. Paul had moved on to Mildred, intending to repeat his crime, but she had discovered his identity, denounced him to the police, and he was imprisoned for 15 years. Now the three sisters are vacationing near the lonely seaside cottage where Mildred and Paul spent their honeymoon, and Mildred is convinced that Paul is out of prison and is coming after her to exact revenge.

Celia Fremlin was a good and show more underrated mystery author, and Uncle Paul is one of my favourites of her books. show less

"You know, you can't ever really understand a man until you've thought he's a murderer."

This is a "domestic" psychological thriller, and I've read at least one other such book by Celia Fremlin that I enjoyed so I picked this one up. Unfortunately, I found this one to be lacking in either suspense or believeability.

Meg and Isabel's much older half-sister Mildred had been married to a man they knew as "Uncle Paul" when they were still young girls. As it turned out, Uncle Paul was a bigamist, and when this was discovered, Uncle Paul was hustled off to jail.

Now years later, Mildred, who is rather high strung, has remarried. Isabel, too, is on her second marriage, and her new husband is having difficulty adjusting to her rowdy children. Meg show more is a career woman in London, when she receives a call from Isabel insisting that Meg come down to the seashore where she and her family are vacationing and where Mildred has turned up after a spat with her husband. Isabel fears that Paul may be about to be released from jail and that they may all be in danger. (No reason is ever given about why Isabel thinks Paul is about to be released or about why she thinks they might all be in danger).

I'd pretty much describe this as Much Ado About Nothing. But of course the author has to come up with something to build suspense. For one, Isabel begins to think her new husband (the one having trouble adjusting to the rowdy children) might actually be Paul in disguise. Most of the other "scary" things are as silly and unbelievable as that.

Definitely not recommended.

1 1/2 stars

First line: "It is rare for any catastrophe to seem like a catastrophe right at the beginning." show less

Self-conscious, dated and silly