The Birthday Present
The thirteenth Barbara Vine novel published by Viking in 2008
I have heard of something called adventure sex, but I don’t remember where. I don’t think it has been written down anywhere. It didn’t take much of a leap of the imagination to come up with it. I mean, look at the Max Mosley case. A great source of entertainment in these economically gloomy times. I think we are much less judgmental about sexual matters than we used to be. No longer puritanical …
It’s late spring of 1990, and a love affair is flourishing between Ivor Tesham, a rising star in Margaret Thatcher’s government, and Hebe Furnal, a stunning North London housewife, stuck in a dull marriage.
Set amidst an age of IRA bombings, the first Gulf War, and sleazy politics, The Birthday Present is the gripping story of a fall from grace, and of a man who carries within him all the hypocrisy, greed and self-obsession of a troubled era.
Notes
- Wexford, mad and bad people, and the vigilance of the writer. Interview with Nicholas Glee, 2008.
Contemporary Reads 2
Karin Fossum - Bad Intentions
John Harvey - Cold In Hand
C.J. Sansom - Revelation
Kate Atkinson - When Will There Be Good News?
P.D. James - The Private Patient
Val McDermid - A Darker Domain
Footnotes
A Tough Case to Crack, The Telegraph 2008. ↩︎
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