REVIEW
Gwen Hunter "False Truths"
Hodder & Stoughton £16.99
Set on the South Louisiana Bayou and in the city of New Orleans False Truths is an account of a young girl coming to know her true background and family in all its perverse and manipulative glory. Having always known she was different, she comes of age and decides to hire a private detective to track down her mother (alive or dead). In the process she stirs up things about her past which shock and almost destroy her, but which also teach her about the real meaning of "family".
Although two thirds of the plot seems to be revealed in the last few chapters leaving the reader a little dazed, this is probably because the author takes a lot of time and care setting the atmosphere and building her characters. The heroine is a likeable mix of naivete and artistic flair; the private eye a no-nonsense, horse-loving loner and the heroine's employer, a temperamental, womanising artist. The novel is full of eccentric people who all spend a great deal of their time drinking strong black chicory coffee "a typical French Louisiana passion". The author's knowledge of and love for the bayou saturate the prose and the novel is full of highly evocative descriptions of the scenery of the area and the lifestyles of its Cajun inhabitants.
The book is well worth reading for such descriptions alone (a passage describing the egrets coming back to roost at dusk sticks in my mind especially), and although the plot is at times rather shaky and unconvincingly overdramatic the whole is well written and enjoyable. I didn't need any of the character's favourite stimulant to keep me awake and engrossed (A.J.C)
See Review of Ashes To Ashes.

Gwen Hunter "Ashes To Ashes"
Hodder & Stoughton (0 340 63788 4) £16.99
Ashley Davenport has just lost her husband, and not only because of the massive brain haemorrhage that took his life but also because of the lies she uncovers in trying to sort out his affairs after his death. Those affairs include a long standing one with her best friend, Robyn, and some dangerous unfinished business with some very unsavoury characters connected with the prestigious housing development he was in the middle of building. Jack was not the man she thought he was, and now she doesn't know who to trust or who is responsible for the strange messages on her husband's answerphone, series of anonymous threats she receives, and worse.
Luckily, she has a good medical training and knows what to do in an emergency, because she suffers so many injuries and is always bruised and in pain that you begin to wonder how she manages to keep going, let alone keep tabs on her headstrong teenage daughter Jasmine, and the headstrong team of investors in DavInc who aren't at all happy with their new female boss. Well, Ashley shows them the strength of a woman and then gets up at 5am to clean out the stables. Not a lady who's falling to pieces after her husband's death. But then she comes from a long line of strong Southern women including Nana and Aunt Mosetta who are in their eighties but still rule the cross-racial, multi-layered Chadwick family with hands of steel, or is it homemade cookies and "soakey" (leftover biscuits with coffee poured over the top).
The South Lousianan sense of family is very strong in the book, as it is in the author's other novels. Ashley's family are her protection, in a quite literal sense as both her securiy guard and her lawyer are Chadwicks, and also her strength, as she comes to realise that they are the only people she can trust. The action is fast-moving and well-plotted, although the medical details of the characters' injuries, whilst obviously well-researched (Gwen Hunter spent eighteen years in a medical laboratory) are perhaps a little too vivid and realistic at times. Not a book to read while trying to enjoy a sandwich.
The theme of Ashley's attempt to come to terms with the fact that her husband was not the hero she thought him to be and her development through this realisation is well-handled and gives the plot depth. Characterisation is good, although as always, Ms. Hunter is better at creating sympathetic, well-rounded women than she is at giving us attractive men. Perhaps there isn't a good one to be found in the whole bunch of Ashley's many suitors, but I'll leave that for you to discover for yourself. (AJC)
See Review of False Truths.