A Painted Smile by Frances Fyfield was published in 2015 and when I saw it on the ‘new books’ shelf of a local library I thought I would give it a go, despite never having read or even heard of the author. Mind you I don’t know how I’ve missed seeing her books as she has written a lot, and has several different series on the go. This one is from her Diana Porteous series.
I have to say that although I slogged to the end of the book I can’t say that I enjoyed it, although it is well written. It suffers from having absolutely no likeable characters, as far as I’m concerned anyway, and the plot was thin and uninteresting.
The setting is the art world, Diana Porteous is a young widow who has inherited a lot of art works from her elderly wealthy husband, as well as his property. His daughter is incensed at this because she feels that Diana has stolen her inheritance. Diana has had a history of thieving, in fact she got to know her husband because she was stealing from him. There are lots of thieves in the book, but somehow it all adds up to a pretty boring read. I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has read anything by Frances Fyfield, and what they thought of them.
The blurb on the front from Literary Review says: ‘Elegant, original and subtle’
I suspect that the damning word there is subtle.
Sometimes it gets to where certain words in blurbs meant as praise unwittingly become signals that I might not enjoy a book. For instance, I worry about “elegaic” and “poetic” when I see them as a description of a novel.
I haven’t heard of this author before. I can’t say that this review makes me want to check out her backlist though. đŸ˜›
Christy,
The ones that make me laugh are those where another author has been asked to say something about a book and they say something like – he/she has done it again! – which can be taken any way you want.
You’re right! It could literally be taken as “He has done it again! He has written another book!”
Christy,
Or even – he has written another awful book!
I’ve read two of her books, The Art of Drowning and Shadows on the Mirror – which I read in 2007 and can’t remember a thing about it. I wrote a bit about The Art of Drowning on my blog in 2011 – I wouldn’t have remember that one either if I hadn’t. I liked it, but noted that I disliked most of the characters and it was full of that creepy feeling of something not quite right – sinister references to past events signalling that not all the characters can be trusted.
I haven’t been tempted to read any more of her books.
Margaret,
It always amazes me that some authors don’t seem to realise that you need at least one likeable character, or at least someone whose side you are on.
I definitely won’t bother with any more of her books as you and I have very similar reading tastes I think.
I watched a British TV series based on her books quite a while ago. Can’t remember the name something bout Helen and casebook. She was an attorney or something. Really enjoyed it so I got a couple books. Didn’t even finished the first and got rid of the others in a clean up.
Peggy Ann,
I vaguely remember a series featuring a Helen but I think I only saw trailers for it. It’s unusual that the TV series was better than the books!