Playing Happy Families - Softcover

Symons, Julian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0446404128 ISBN 13: 9780446404129

Publisher: Mysterious Press, 1995

Synopsis

Gathering for the thirty-year anniversary festivities of John and Eleanor, the Midway clan is sent into chaos when daughter Jenny Midway suddenly disappears, and Detective Superintendent Hilary Catchpole must seek out the truth. Reprint.

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: Mysterious Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0446404128
• ISBN 13: 9780446404129
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288