The Drowning People - Softcover

Mason, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0446608009 ISBN 13: 9780446608008

Publisher: Vision, 2000

Synopsis

A past based on the betrayal of a friend leads to revenge and murder in the life of James Farrell, a musician whose overwhelming love for the beautiful aristocrat Ella Harewood leads him into an intense love affair that defies the proper standards of English society. A first novel. Reprint.

About this title

Review:

"My wife of more than forty-five years shot herself yesterday afternoon. At least that is what the police assume, and I am playing the part of grieving widower with enthusiasm and success...It was I who killed her." Thus begins The Drowning People, the media-hyped first novel by 20-year-old Oxford undergraduate Richard Mason. Your typical murder mystery it is not, for we are given the identity of the killer--the "who?"--immediately. The puzzle to be solved in this introspective novel is "why?"--why did 70-year-old James Farrell murder his wife Sarah? The answer, as it develops from his own confession, delves nearly 50 years into the past and roams from Prague to London, from France to a remote castle in Cornwall. At its core is an intoxicating love affair set amidst the stifling world of English aristocracy: James at 22, a talented musician and hopeless romantic and Ella Harewood, his wife's cousin, an American heiress to an English title, trapped by her heritage and destiny. A beautifully written exploration of self-absorbed first love and its tragic consequences, Richard Mason's The Drowning People soars beyond the highest of expectations placed upon it. --Shannon Bingham

Review:

`Assured, well-paced and ambitious ... the writing is a delight. An exceptional achievement. (GUARDIAN (1999))

`Redolent of early Evelyn Waugh... Mason already displays narrative drive, verbal skill and technical mastery. (DAILY EXPRESS (1999))

`One of the most talked about first novels of 1999. If you want to be au courant with modern fiction, you will need to read it...' (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (1999))

`A very impressive first novel ... the story immediately hooks you until the end' (THE TIMES (1999))

An absolutely fantastic story: a cast of weird and wonderful characters, tangled love, secrets and deceits, deaths, and altogether a hugely inventive plot with a twist to beat all twists at the very 11th hour. (OXFORD TIMES)

About this edition

• Publisher: Vision
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0446608009
• ISBN 13: 9780446608008
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 388