Lovely, haunting, story. Well written and a bit devious in the authors presentation of the main character. It sucked me in and I will not forget this story. Bravo. ( )

Such a slow plodding book without any real twist or plot ( )

I felt absolute nothing the whole time I was reading this book. ( )

During a night drive back to London, after a visit to her parents, Frances comes across a car crash and after calling for an ambulance, sits and talks to the trapped and injured driver, Alys, who dies before help can arrive. The aftermath of this leads Frances, a newspaper literary sub-editor, to become involve with the family of the driver. Her interest is piqued when she discovers that Alys’ husband is Laurence Kyte, a well-known author. What follows is an absorbing and fascinating psychological tale as Frances takes the opportunity to inveigle her way into the affections of the family and to use this connection to advance her career. Lane’s wonderful writing charts Frances’ blossoming from being unmemorable to moving to centre stage as her confidence increases and her plans successfully unfold.

I'd been looking forward to reading this one for a while because the summary pulled me in. I must say that I didn't enjoy this one as much as I'd thought I would. Frances, our narrator, ingratiates herself to the family of Alys (of the title), a woman she comes upon by chance after a car accident that proves fatal. Frances was privy to the final words of Alys & when meeting the woman's greiving family, she chooses to embellish them & ultimately uses that connection as her in to their world. I don't know if Frances was a narcissist, social climber or some other sort of obsessive but I did come to regard her as an unreliable narrator because she gave such self-serving a view of virtually everything and was also hyper-obsessed with how others saw her & painted herself almost like a martyr being put upon by her boring and staid life and everyone who peopled it, except the Kytes. I didn't buy the relationship that happens in the final act but I honestly didn't feel annoyed that Frances manipulated her way in successfully. I didn't know if she really truly cared about the Kytes outside a means of escaping her own drudge of a life but the Kytes were never rendered so deeply that I cared much ultimately. This one was just ok for me but it was short & it's one more I've finally got round to on my "To Read" list, so I'm still pleased. It's not a bad book for a weekend or over the week during lunch. ( )