Red Herring

This book reads like a chain of pulp fiction clich$eAs: an over-inquisitive guest turns up at a hotel and alienates the proprietor's children with her nastiness; a cryptic message from a stranger's distant childhood is found by chance; a bag of jewellery is extracted from an old doll; the children are separated from their parents and locked in an attic; old family hatreds are rekindled and resolved . . . However, the chain is forged with such unassuming skill I found it impossible to put the book down. It's true that the pulp does get a bit over-soggy in the final chapter, but this will provide an exciting, escapist jaunt for newly independent readers, and a good spot-the-motif source for those more jaded.