THE RIVER HOUSE by MARGARET LEROY

THE RIVER HOUSE

BY MARGARET LEROY

THE BLURB:-

Ginnie Holmes has found something she never intended to find- an overwhelming passion for a man she should not be with. At an abandoned boathouse hidden on the river bank of the Thames, Ginnie steps into a world that's just a little bit brighter than her ordinary life. An escape from an empty marriage and a drifting life.

A terrifying event means the lovers' secret becomes a deadly catastrophe. And Ginnie finds herself in the path of extraordinary danger, not only facing the exposure and grief she has feared, but endangering herself and everyone she loves.

THE REALITY:-

Ginnie's marriage is empty, although her family life, and her career are not. But during one of her romantic rendezvous with her lover, she spots a stranger behaving suspiciously. Murderous events mean that she is faced with a moral dilemma- does she say what she saw and risk everything, or keep quiet?

This is a very middle class take on the subject of extra-marital affairs. All the characters are well-educated, have good jobs and live in nice areas. They are well-rounded, carefully drawn, much defined by their careers and have enough substance and detail about them to be interesting. I personally know the area where the novel is set, so a sense of place was easy to envisage.

But somehow, the supposed passion of the affair all seems lost. When Ginnie and Will (also married) get together, their trysts seem way too seedy to be anything special. Maybe this was the intention of the writer, but the love scenes are very base, and the ending of the relationship comes across as lacking, and not very emotional. Although their passion is supposed to be “overwhelming” that doesn't come across at all, and the whole thing seems mapped out by Ginnie and Will from the start.

Ginnie eventually does the right thing from the point of view of her conscience and a murderer gets convicted, but it's a story that seems to drift off into nothing rather than have any sense of a real climatic ending (although the part where Ginnie's daughter goes missing does have a sense of tension). In fact it's Ginnie's relationship with her daughter, rather than Will, that comes across as more interesting.

Light, bright and trite. You kind of know how this would continue if there were to be a sequel. An OK read, but nothing to rock the boat.