Deception opening line: Alice Kent turned up the volume on her car radio as Eric Clapton, playing her favourite number, ‘Layla’, came on.
My blurb:
Alice grew up feeling like she never really connected with her mother. But she wasn’t sure why. That was, until she died, and her real father turned up at the funeral. Wanting to know why her mother never told them the truth about their past, Alice starts diving in. And what she learns helps her understand, and leads her to love.
Deception
What happens when the person closest to you has led a life of deception?
After the funeral of her mother, Sally, Alice Kent is approached by a man named Angus Tweedy. He claims to be her father and tells her that he served time in prison for marrying Sally bigamously.
What does he hope to gain telling her this now, thirty years on? How can her adored dad Ralph not be her true father? And why did her mother betray her so badly?
She had accepted Sally’s many faults, and her reluctance to never speak of the past. But faced with this staggering deception, Alice knows she must uncover the whole truth about her mother.
Whatever the cost.
Alice’s journey into her mother’s past is one of incredulity as she discovers a woman shaped by a truly traumatic childhood…
My verdict:
I really enjoyed this book and can recommend you go out and get yourself a copy if you like a good mystery, or a good love story, or both.
Read an extract of Deception:
Alice Kent turned up the volume on her car radio as Eric Clapton, playing her favourite number, ‘Layla’, came on.
She was speeding down from Bristol to her mother’s funeral in Totnes and she was late, delayed by wafflers at the meeting this morning. Now she’d have to go straight to the church in Dartington instead of meeting up with her family first. As that would give her enough time not to be late for the service, she relaxed a little and sang along with Eric.
Her mother, Sally Kent, had died of cancer ten days earlier. Alice had taken leave from work so she could nurse her mother for her last weeks and, sad as it was for her mother to die relatively young at seventy-five, Alice knew she was glad to go.
‘I’ve had a good life,’ she said one morning, as Alice was brushing her hair. ‘A wonderful husband, the two best daughters any mother would want, and three grandchildren. But it’s time for me to go now, Alice. I don’t like being in pain, or people taking care of me. I just want peace.’
Publishing information:
Penguin Random House South Africa sent me this novel to review.
View the previous posts on August 7:
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- 2020: Hummus Salad Dressing
- 2019: July 2019 Showcasing In My Kitchen
- 2017: Freezer Scones
- 2016: Playing With Fire
- 2015: Friday 7 August 2015: Out And About
- 2014: Horseradish Dressing
- 2013: Tanqueray Gin Dragon Cocktail
Hi Tandy, Thanks for your review of Deception by Lesley Pearse. Sounds my kind of book! Trust you are keeping well and still cooking up a storm…Cheers. xx
Hope you find time to read it!