Lemon in the Basket

I seem to always end up feeling, when I read a Charlotte Armstrong novel, that I ought to have enjoyed it a lot more than I did, and the same is true with this one. The ghastly Tyler family are so brilliant, rich, privileged and charitably generous that it makes your gorge rise just to think about them. All except one, who's thick as two short planks; he and his even thicker wife are resentful as hell about the overweening ways of  his siblings, siblings-in-law, and parents. And now the family is hosting a visit by the ruler of some frightful repressive nation somewhere in the back of beyond. Are there sinister forces at work to try to bump off the ruler's youthful heir?

Well, yes, there are.

The New York Times, quoted on the cover, show more thought this was a "Wonderful thriller . . . Breathtaking!" Me, I thought it was somewhat plodding and unconvincing.

And so another few years will pass before I next pick up a Charlotte Armstrong novel thinking that perhaps this time I'll be able to find out what all the fuss was about . . . show less