Sheer Blue Bliss Book

Lesley Glaister's writing goes from strength to strength. She has produced eight sharply observed, stylishly crafted books in nine years and her fans know what to expect: mean suburban streets, dingy terraced houses where behind closed doors wacky old women, disturbed children and an assortment of misfits turn the mundane into the macabre. Sheer Blue Bliss confirms Glaister as one of the most original voices of the 1990s. The central characters, portraitist Constance Benson and Patrick Mount, failed phytologist and inventor of a life-enhancing elixir, have been lovers since Connie was 16. He is now dead and the story weaves from the present, where Connie is holding a retrospective exhibition of her work, including a valued portrait of Patrick, to the past and her childhood when they first met. Leaving her lonely cottage in Norfolk, Connie is exposed in London to hazardous encounters with PR people, journalists and sinister eccentrics such as Tony, an ex-convict obsessed with obtaining Patrick's elixir, which will induce the bliss of the book's title. Of London Connie reflects "It has been a delight and it has all been far too much"--but back in Norfolk life turns out to be even more dangerous... A carefully conceived and constructed novel, Sheer Blue Bliss is written so effortlessly that the reader is drawn with equal ease into the twists and turns of the plot where tension and suspense mount to a plausible climax. Glaister perceives and records with almost frightening clarity, creating a story of sheer black brilliance. --Pearl IrishRead More