Emma Cave - The Lair
K The title is deliberately evocative and stark and Emma Cave reminds us of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary definition...... "Lair….The resting place of a corpse; a grave....A place for animals to lie down in". The central character in this crime novel. Rupert Denytree, finds this a fitting description for the private Greek island which his latest lover Disa owns.
The novel starts and ends in this unsavoury place but the murders which occur and the main action takes place in London.
Numerous characters are graphically portrayed as the story develops and all are linked by their past or present relationship with Rupert. He is the seemingly charming, thrice married bounder who has, albeit temporarily, abandoned the angelic Lucy tot bear his child alone.
As the plot unfolds, the reader is treated to a heady mix of deceits, contrasts and contradictions. There is love and lust, blind faith and cynicism, joy and fear, beauty and ugliness. One is left wondering if the main crimes are the murders committed for the love of the innocent Lucy or the acts of wanton betrayal and the debauchery portrayed. Even politics and religion get an airing. The author introduces moral values yet counters this with meaty chunks of vice and subversion.
This is the sixth Emma Cave novel. It is unusual and well plotted, descriptive and takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of mixed emotions. Goodness and evil are equally portrayed - this is a novel that makes you pause to contemplate the diversity of humankind.
Carol Butterworth
