Playing Happy Families - Hardcover

Symons, Julian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0333606981 ISBN 13: 9780333606988

Publisher: Macmillan, 1994

Synopsis

John and Eleanor Midway have just celebrated 30 years of contented, if not blissful, married life - an ordinary middle-class couple. But a few days later, daughter Jenny goes missing, and their lives are catapulted into confusion. Inspector Catchpole is assigned to the case.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

All of the Midways will remember this Saturday ... because Jenny Midway is about to vanish from the face of the earth. In a strange turn - almost as if magnetic poles have been reversed - the members of the Midway family will begin to repel each other, exchange personalities, and discover shocking strengths and weaknesses they never knew existed. Detective Superintendent Hilary Catchpole is called in to investigate the disappearance, which might very well not be a crime at all. Against daunting odds, he must unearth the truth about Jenny - before the rest of the family implodes, changing beyond recognition and becoming utterly without mercy ...

From Publishers Weekly:

A much-honored English author of nearly 30 crime novels, Symons (Sweet Adelaide) again dissects the English middle class in a plot with a twin-screwed narrative. But this time, Symons uncharacteristically delivers less than the book initially promises. The adult children of John and Eleanor Midway gather for their parents' 30th wedding anniversary. Champagne is poured; good food is served. But a crisis changes the lives of the Midways, or perhaps it renders visible aspects of their lives formerly hidden. Their firebrand daughter Jenny vanishes one afternoon; she is revealed as wild and promiscuous. In grief, John falls into the arms of his secretary, while Eleanor becomes an unlikely restaurant mogul. Eleanor's son Eversley, visiting from America, negotiates the sale of a priceless work of art with the gallery where Jenny worked. That odd coincidence sets Detective Superintendent Hilary Catchpole on a hunt for a killer. Symons struggles here on several fronts: his sexually liberated youngsters aren't convincing, and a subplot dealing with John's cross-dressing brother seems a pointless diversion. The impressive talent behind such works as Death's Darkest Face is conspicuously absent in this tale, which is neither taut nor especially knowing.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Macmillan
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0333606981
• ISBN 13: 9780333606988
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 264