Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 9, 1995 TAG: 9507070097
SECTION: BOOK PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY JILL BOWEN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Margaret Yorke's latest novel again demonstrates her ability to write stylish psychological suspense in highly readable English.
The story is set in a small English country village where crime is virtually unheard of except, perhaps, for the odd bit of pheasant poaching. So when two ex-convicts are thwarted in their attempt to rob the local Manor house, they decide to break into the home of Derek Jarvis at gun point. Derek urges his college-aged daughter Hannah not to fight back, and despite her heroic efforts she is brutally raped by one of the men.
Although the men are caught and convicted, the robbery and rape not only irrevocably soured the relationship between father and daughter but also between Derek and his wife Janet. The marriage ends in divorce after Hannah has fled to a nature reserve in a remote part of Scotland to try and come to terms with the violation, not only of her body but also her soul.
Meanwhile Derek, now very much alone, begins to craft a plan for revenge to repair his self-esteem and punish Hannah's rapist. How he achieves both his aims makes an absorbing no-frills narrative with an intriguing twist which Yorke carries through most convincingly to the climax of the story.
Jill Bowen is a Blacksburg veterinarian.
by CNB