A Question of Trust

June 25, 2018
The late Vincenzi (A Perfect Heritage) demonstrates her talent for weaving a dizzying cast of characters together into a historical epic that spans the middle decades of the 20th century. Born in England in the wake of WWI, Tom Knelston is a postmaster’s son whose intelligence and ambition help him rise to a position of prominence in the Labour Party following WWII. That position sustains him following the death of his wife in childbirth. Diana Southcott is born into a stifling life of privilege but leaves her husband to forge a modeling career. As Tom’s second marriage falters, he and Diana tumble into an affair that jeopardizes Tom’s family and his career. A secondary plot featuring Jillie, a promising obstetrician, and Ned, a gay pediatrician who fears for his professional prospects if he’s outed, is far more emotionally gripping, but the imbalance between their story and Tom’s leaves the work feeling off-kilter and unfulfilling. The story is solid, but each scene plays out like a snapshot, with plenty of color but no real depth. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Associates.

July 1, 2018
Vincenzi, who died in February, wrote blockbusters (A Perfect Heritage, 2015, etc.) focusing on Fleet Street journalists, desperate politicians, fashion mavens, and physicians, all of whom are represented in her last novel, which follows a group of characters from 1936 to 1955.As with much of Vincenzi's oeuvre, a populous cast is introduced at the beginning, mandating constant cross-checking of the indispensable Character List for the first 200 pages or so. Tom rises from a working-class background to become a solicitor and a candidate to be a Member of Parliament from the Labour Party. Top model Diana, whom true love has eluded, relieves the boredom of her marriage with fashion shoots, flings with photographers, and posh nightlife. Jillie, an obstetrician, and Ned, a pediatrician, are on the verge of marriage until Ned reveals that he's gay. Alice married Tom but has always felt overshadowed by his first wife, Laura, who not only saw him through World War II, but died giving birth to their stillborn child. Alice gave up her hard-won nursing career to have three children with Tom, but the strains of domestic life--Labour politicians don't hire nannies--take a toll. The behavior of the characters is often arbitrary: Tom, for example, appears to go from understanding husband to petty tyrant overnight. Diana can be gracious one minute, vindictive and conniving the next. Three main conflicts heighten the stakes. Diana and Tom find themselves helplessly in lust just as he is about to break into the political mainstream. The heroic Ned draws his superiors' ire by advocating for hospitalized children, risking dangerous publicity: If the press sniffs out his homosexuality, ruin and jail are guaranteed. Tom's advocacy for the new National Health Service is key to his politics but proves problematic for his family. Vincenzi's forte was delivering her doses of socio-economic realism with a large dollop of syrupy scandal.Vincenzi's vast readership, both in the U.K. and across the pond, will savor this last book.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2018
When wealthy Diana Southcott first meets Tom Knelston, she notices his good looks. But class differences, then war, keep them apart until the 1950s, when Diana is an unhappily married fashion model, and Tom is a rising star in the Labour Party, grieving the loss of his wife and child. As Diana and Tom irregularly cross paths, Vincenzi (The Perfect Heritage, 2015) widens the focus to other young people in postwar London, like nurse Alice, who falls for Tom, and her best friend, Jillie, engaged to doctor Ned, who is a little too respectful of her virtue. As Tom chases his political dreams, his affair with Diana becomes a respite from Alice and domestic chaos. Readers might not feel much sympathy for him, but they will for Ned, whose loneliness drives his work with sick children. The hallmarks of a Vincenzi novel are all here: fabulous hotels, expensive champagne, and heart-wrenching angst hidden by a stiff upper lip. Old-fashioned and over-the-top in the best way, this can be recommended to readers who like the sagas of Danielle Steel and Barbara Taylor Bradford.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)