Lead Review (a raunchy read)
- Book: Killer Affair
- Location: London, Sandlands
- Author: Rebecca Chance
Summer is the time for a raunchy read and this will fit the bill nicely – but beware if you are not into celebrity culture or carnal couplings, as it is brimful of bare flesh, and a depressing excess of surgical enhancement, all brought together with an acute eye for human exchanges.
Caroline is approached by agent’s assistant Campaspe Norton-Brown (I can confirm that they certainly do indeed have some curious names in the publishing world) to ghost write a book on the life and loves of celebrity star Lexy, married to lovely footballer Frank Callis, who is the rock in her life. They live in a beautiful home – The Gables – at Sandbanks (Bournemouth), on the south coast of England, with two children stylishly named London and Laylah. Frumpy and overweight, Caroline is the perfect shadow to probe the recesses of Lexy’s hitherto colourful life, and is dubbed by Lexy as the Ghost Mouse. She also isn’t particularly taken with her new moniker, it rather incenses her. But Caroline is not exactly the retiring type, as she discovers to her own surprise. She is as yet unpublished but writes Regency bonkbusters, and the more she discovers of Lexy’s life, the more she yearns to be like her and to experience life in the public eye – oh, and she is more than attracted to hubby Frank, so loving and devoted as he seems to be to his wife. A real regular, nice guy, too nice perhaps for the likes of Lexy and her coterie, muses Caroline.
A chance meeting for Lexy with top American celebrity Silantra (which as I write nattily Auto Corrects to Cilantro, another name for Coriander – she has real wit, does this author) sets Lexy’s star to rise even further. These two are thinly veiled characters, easy to guess on whom they might be based in real life.
But an ill-advised encounter soon puts paid to Lexy’s all too comfortable life of the three Fs (Fame, Fortune and Frank) and she has some real scrabbling and pondering to do. Lexy is now confined to barracks of her own making and a period of detox is carefully managed by her PR team, who step in at the drop of a hat to make sure their celebrity icon remains in the public eye. Caroline, meanwhile, has to somehow plug the gap….
I was also pleased to see that Darrell Rose got a good mention (even though he is a ghastly character in the book). The author sought suggestions for names and under an alter ego, that was the name I put forward.
In terms of location, the novel has a very English feel to it, London and Bournemouth get a look-in, but locale isn’t a huge character in the novel. There is too much else going on and to be honest, setting would not be the primary reason you would buy this book.
So, if you like sizzling, sexy bonkbusters, then this will be a novel for you, it packs in lies, deceit, sex, revenge and ultimately a bit of romance too. You WILL learn new things, I guarantee you, even if you didn’t particularly want to know about them. You might even work out how to pronounce Campaspe, I am still working on it!
Just off for a Pinot and Lemon (breathes deeply), the drink of choice in the book….
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