A 1001 MIDNIGHTS Evaluation
by Newell Dunlap.
ANDREW GARVE – The Lester Affair. Harper & Row, US, hardcover, 1974. Revealed beforehand by Collins,UK, hardcover, 1974.
Amongst Garve’s different pursuits is a eager one in boating and the ocean, and that is certainly one of his greatest novels coping with that theme. James Lester, Britain’s Progressive get together candidate, appears effectively on his option to changing into prime minister when a wierd factor occurs: A younger lady, Shirley Holt, claims that she and Jim Lester met throughout a vacation; that they bathed nude collectively on a abandoned seashore; that she went aboard his boat to spend the night time; and that throughout the night time that they had a sexual relationship.
Effectively, all proper, such issues occur. And apparently no hurt has been achieved. In spite of everything, on the time, and presently, Lester was single-a widower really. However (and right here comes the intriguing Garve puzzle) Lester himself not solely denies that such a factor ever occurred, he denies even figuring out the girl.
Evidently, claims and counterclaims take over the election headlines. Why. Lester supporters surprise, would Jim tum his again on this lady? She is ready to provide a really convincing account of that night time, together with particulars she seemingly wouldn’t have recognized in any other case, and the topaz ring she claims she misplaced on the boat is recovered from certainly one of its drains. Nonetheless, Lester sticks to his story, and begins to lose his lead within the election polls.
This complicated thriller is informed from plenty of factors of view of individuals investigating the incident. And, as is commonly the case with Garve’s tales, curiosity is sustained all through with out a single demise and even the specter of demise. The decision is certain to shock and fulfill the reader.
Garve additionally shows his information of the ocean to good impact in The Megstone Plot (1957) and A Hero for Leanda (1959). Different equally tremendous adventures are The Cuckoo Line Affair (1953), which considerations a son’s struggle to clear his father of a shameful accusation; Boomerang (1970), which is about in Australia; and The Case of Robert Quarry ( 1972), a wonderful depiction of the everlasting triangle.
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Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Invoice Pronzini & Marcia Muller and printed by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Field, 2007. Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Household Belief.
