Drawing the Line by
Judith Cutler
hbk out October 04
Published by Allison Busby
at £18.99
It is always a delight to have a new Judith Cutler book, as her easy style of writing has
an immediacy that puts the reader directly in touch with her scenes and characters,
almost making the author redundant as a middle-man (or woman)… Somerset
Maugham had the same gift.
In this novel, Judith has abandoned her former Birmingham home, where her string of
Kate Power and Sophie Rivers books were based. As the author has moved to the
Canterbury area, so has she taken her locale with her and Drawing the Line floats
around southern Kent. She also has a new focus figure in the shape of Lina Townend,
who is a young woman cast in the mould of Lovejoy, banging about the county selling
and searching for antiques. Much fostered in the past, she has been settled with Griff,
a kindly old gay who runs the antique business. Though he is a benign father-figure,
she hankers after finding her real father, but all she has is a memory from early
childhood of a large house and a special old book. The plot kicks off when she finds
the frontispiece of this book during her rummaging for antiques and sets out to
discover which Kentish mansion might have the rest of it and, ergo, her Dad.
However, the book would be extremely valuable and this seems to set off a train of
robberies and assaults which forms the ramifications of the story.
A very readable and believable story, which again like Lovejoy, has the added bonus
of a some handy tips about antiques.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
Drawing the Line by
Judith Cutler
