Christopher Bowden

An out of work actor, Colin Mallory, is spending some time in Paris. He comes across an intriguing painting of Sylvie Charlot, a very notable high fashion designer in Paris who worked on many movie films. Colin believes that the fashion icon is looking directly at him, asking him to look into the secret of the painting. There is a shadow in the painting that seems to have a life of it's own. He sets his mind to find out the story of the painting, it's artist even though he is warned to leave the past alone.… (mehr)

I was immediately intrigued by the idea of Hugh Mullion finding a key down the side of a chair and going on a search to find out who it belonged to and what it unlocked. It is indeed an interesting story that he discovers, that of Lionel, an artist who never really reached his full potential.

Hugh is like a dog with a bone, digging deeper and deeper into Lionel's life. He meets Hester, his granddaughter, who has a story to tell about Lionel's past and about where the amber maze comes into it.

I wasn't entirely sure why Hugh was so dogged, so interested in a stranger's life, but I suppose we're all a bit like that. We're all fascinated by other people's lives and I was really interested to read of Lionel's life through Hester and through some journals that Hugh manages to find. What particularly appealed to me was the search for documentation and the country house that formed a part of the story. I think it gave a real air of intrigue to the plot and it felt a bit like a treasure trail, with information rather than treasure being the prize at the end.

I enjoyed the length of this book too. It was long enough to be nice and meaty but it wasn't so long that I got fed up with Hugh's nosiness! I thought it was a great piece of 'noir fiction' and I'd definitely look at Christopher Bowden's back list, some of which were on my radar anyway.… (mehr)

A London solicitor finds a photograph inside a guidebook to a stately home in Hampshire amongst her late grandmother’s effects, and proceeds to unearth a family secret. This is a solidly written mystery which is broadly guessable from the clues dropped, but is no less enjoyable for that as it meanders through 1950s Hampshire and an unexpected trip to Kenya during what is described as “the Emergency”. That’s one historical reference I had to google, but no surprises that it involves British colonials behaving badly.

I am going to guess that this was self-published; it has an air of the star performer at the local writer’s circle, which is to say that it is technically very competent but there is a tendency to over- use language in places – as though there was a sign on the door :”No nouns admitted unless accompanied by an adjective”. That said, as the novel progressed it gained a momentum and a lightness of touch that I had missed in the earlier stages. The Africa section was particularly well written, and all the way through the characters are introduced without fuss and without holding up the narrative. The author doesn’t tell everything but leaves the reader to join the dots.

Altogether an interesting and worthwhile read.… (mehr)