The Art of Love (or Villa on the Riviera)

Another random selection from my towering TBR pile, this novel published in 2007 is set between the two World Wars in London and in France and is described by the publishers as: “A Gripping Historical Fiction Mystery of Hidden Identities and Scandalous Secrets.”
 
Artist Polly Smith needs a passport and has difficulty locating her birth certificate, about which her mother is stubbornly vague. With good reason, as it transpires that Polly is not her child but is her sister’s illegitimate daughter, born in Paris with the outlandish name of Polyhymnia Tomkins. Polly’s now worried that her stiff, pompous fiancé Roger won’t be happy to know the truth.
 
Max Lytton is a dashing man about town who appears to be a bit of a dilletante when, in fact, he’s an agent in the intelligence services. His sister Cynthia has caused a scandal in social circles by getting a divorce and has taken up with tycoon Sir Walter Malreward, who appears to be above board but may be involved in nefarious businesses, including dubious art sales. Cynthia has mysterious reasons for delaying their marriage.
 
Polly’s marriage to Roger is also put off for some months and she takes up the offer from her wealthy (secretly gay) friend, Oliver, to join him and several artists in his family’s home in the South of France. There are more sub-plots featuring other individuals who aren’t who they say they are. These all collide in a somewhat limp conclusion, overloaded with too many coincidences and tidy revelations of those “hidden identities” and “scandalous secrets”.
 
Admittedly, it wasn’t easy for women to assert themselves in that era but Polly’s character is disjointed; she’s fearless speaking out at certain times and a complete wuss at others. The dialogue of Oliver’s sister, the acerbic Katriona, is taken to extremes and a more subtle bitchiness could have been just as effective. Likewise, the annoyingly critical Roger. His about-face in the last chapter is contrived and unexplained. The various romances all feel lukewarm at best, and even an attempted murder seems low-key.
 
On the research side, the tone of the 1930s is well-presented, but overall, this meanders along never quite deciding if it should be just a lightweight Riviera romance or take risks and become a more serious novel with significant commentary on politics and the abuse of power and money.
 
Two-and-a-half stars
 
amazon.com (published as Villa on the Riviera – audio version)

amazon.co.uk (Kindle)

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