​
​This is the fifth instalment in the Seven Sisters series and shows the inevitable problems for authors who take on epic projects, racing to produce sequel after sequel with diminishing skill and effectiveness. (I am aware that the author is no longer with us and wrote several of these during her final illness, which is highly commendable, but the fact remains they aren’t her best work.)
 
I enjoyed the first three books, but the fourth, The Pearl Sister, partly set in Thailand and Australia, and this one haven't worked as well as the others.
 
All the books have a similar plotline. A contemporary group of sisters, the adopted daughters of Pa Salt, a wealthy man who has just passed away, are given sketchy details about their true parentage. Each sister heads off to various places around the world in an effort to discover her origins. In tandem with the contemporary stories are those set in the past, each about an intriguing female ancestor, often inspired by real history.
 
In this case, I found the temperamental Lucia, the gitana flamenco-dancing grandmother of Sister #5, Tiggy, just plain exasperating and I grew bored with her drama queen behaviour early on. The setting in Granada and background history of Spanish gypsies was, however, more appealing. Tiggy has sensitivity and finer eco-qualities, but she failed to capture my sympathy as much as she could have.
 
Some of the other female characters, such as Lucia’s mother Maria, and the main male characters were better drawn, but the shallow and shady tycoon Zed who blatantly tries to seduce Tiggy is very unpleasant. That Tiggy, this supposedly most intuitive of all the Sisters, couldn’t see through him right away makes a mockery of her alleged psychic abilities inherited from her gypsy ancestors.
 
The book reveals that Zed has some unexplained link to all the Sisters, so we’re not done with him yet. Plus, there are various other threads which weren't followed through but presumably will be explained anon.
 
I am left with two more Sisters to discover, plus a concluding epic Atlas on the Sisters’ adoptive father, Pa Salt, which is almost the size of a bible.
 
From a sample chapter for the next Sister #6 Electra - apparently a famous international drug-addled model - I am seriously wondering if I am able to invest my time and deal with another rich, spoiled female through 700 or more pages.
 
Do I have the energy to continue?

More to the point, can I take more of the insufferable Zed?
 
Sadly, my star rating falls with each book. The Pearl Sister might have managed three, but this is down to two-and-a-half.

 
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Dymocks Australia

​It’s 1947, and ageing widow, Lesley Hamlyn, lives in the sparse and arid Karoo region of South Africa. A book written by Somerset Maughan arrives in the post, immediately triggering memories of the life she had earlier in the century, and she pines for her luscious tropical home in Penang in the Straits Settlements. She was forced to move to a drier climate due to her late husband Robert’s poor lung health.

Lesley’s first-person narrative is interspersed with that in the third person featuring the author, Willie Somerset Maughan, and relates how he comes to stay with Lesley and Robert after a peripatetic journey through the Far East with his secretary and lover, Gerald. As he searches for new subjects to write about, Willie is faced with personal problems on several fronts.

This extraordinary and absorbing novel is partly based in historical fact and has considerable depth and insight. It tackles the full range of human emotions - love, lies, loss, betrayal and even a notorious and enigmatic real murder case.

Like much of Maughan’s own writing, the pitfalls of marriage feature strongly. Lesley’s shock when she discovers Robert’s secret leads her to throw caution to the winds and embark on her own clandestine involvement with associates of the Chinese revolutionary, Sun Wen, also known as Sun Yat Sen.

Atmospheric, with exquisitely crafted writing and empathy, this has my vote as one of the best novels I’ve read in the past few years.

(The book also speaks to me personally on many levels. I’m fortunate in having the advantage of remembering similar characters to Lesley, Robert, et al, as my father and members of his family and friends lived through this era of the British Empire. I’ve been to Penang and also Beaufort West, the town near Lesley’s home in South Africa. I'm familiar with the work of Somerset Maughan and, ironically, I also have a pendant that belonged to my late mother that bears a silvery image of Sun Yat Sen.)

Five stars.

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Dymocks Australia

Told through the viewpoints of three women, this is a novel set in that disturbing and hysterical era in the late 1500s when King James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) becomes convinced that his scheming cousin, Lord Bothwell, has recruited witches in order to take over the throne and results in the infamous torture, trials and burnings of many women.
 
Anna is the King’s reluctant young Danish bride whose ship is damaged and delayed by tremendous storms on her way to Scotland, allegedly caused by witchcraft. Kirsten is her lady companion who has knowledge of Scottish ways and must educate the young Queen. Jura is a maid living at North Berwick who has rudimentary and innocent knowledge of ‘charmes’ and potions that help people.
 
Anna submits to her duty, but her heart is elsewhere with her tutor, Henry, and she doesn’t want to get pregnant so she can have her handfasting union with James annulled. Kirsten is a dark horse and is in secret communication with an unknown person in Scotland. Jura becomes the victim of her despicable employer Baillie Kincaid and flees to practice her skills in the Canongate area of Edinburgh.
 
There is a satisfying major twist in the inevitable result although the personal links between the women feel a bit contrived. The men of the church are the usual bigots who seem to get off on cruelty. Henry is shadowy and unconvincing. Jura’s quaint semi-Scots dialect can be distracting. And the current trend delving into the nature of the relationships between King James and his male favourites is given another outing.
 
While the background settings are well done and the novel is a good introduction to the topic of the witchcraft trials, it’s not the real story. *  There are some minor historical anachronisms that have slipped through as well, e.g. using the colour ‘navy’ blue – this didn’t come into use until nearly two centuries later with the creation of naval uniforms.
 
Three-and-a-half stars.

*  The non-fiction work "Bothwell and the Witches" by Godfrey Watson is recommended for anyone wanting to read more.


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