Undercurrents [Hardcover]

As for our incarcerated martyr, give me a break. Some people are just too good for their own (and anyone else's) good.

Henry's father was the most attractive character in the book. And we know what happened to him.

P.S. Three stars instead of two are for Frances Fyfield in general!

Twenty years ago, Henry Evans walked away from the love of his life, Francesca Chisholm. His father's recent death however has brought Henry to the crossroads of his life sotospeak, and so he makes for the English coastal town of Warblings, to try and find Francesca. The England of his fantasies and England in reality are two very different things for this very shy American, and definitely the natives take a little getting used to; and while Henry didn't expect for his quest for Francesca to be incredibly easy, he didn't expect to discover that Francesca was in prison for having murdered her five year old son either. All his memories about Francesca, as well as his gut feelings tells him that she cannot be guilty of such a crime, in spite of her confession of having performed the deed. And so Henry, with no real skills in investigation, decides to try and discover what really happened that fateful day, a year ago. But he finds it rather stiff going: few want to talk about what happened, and Francesca's friends and family seem openly alarmed and hostile at his attempts to ferret out information. Henry must balance his memory of the girl of his dreams with what happened, and discover if his Francesca was indeed capable of so foul a deed, or if she is covering up for someone else.

To begin with this novel makes for some really compelling reading. At the heart of this novel is the characer of Francesca Chisolm: how she touched so many lives, and how she became the mainstay of so many people. Could a woman of such seemingly goodness be capable of so brutal and heinous a crime? Fyfield handles this concept in a really brilliant manner by interposing the chapters that deal with Henry's seemingly inept investigations with Francesca's own prison writings. This really made the novel a lot more intersting, because you got to know the real Francesca from her writings, instead of being limited to other people's views of her. And the fact that I didn't really like anyone in this novel except for Francesca, didn't detract from my enjoyment of "Undercurrents" at all. Henry Evans is an improbable knight in shinning armour, mostly because I couldn't fathom how a successful 40 year old could be so ineffectual most of the time. I think Fyfield did this novel a great disservice by making Henry so feeble for the first half of the book. Also the reader is not given a very clear idea as to why Henry walked away from Francesca all those years ago, and I for one found this really frustrating. However he did pull up his socks towards the end of the novel, so all was not lost. My main reservation with this novel is in the ending, when you discover what really happened on the pier that fateful day. It makes for poignant reading when you realise that one character's firm resolve dictated the outcome of Francesca Chisolm's fate; and it was chilling to realise that a police investigation could be expertly sidelined. However I strongly disagreed with the manner in which things were left, and foresee years of therapy for certain characters in the future!

"Undercurrents" is a riveting read -- the plot is a clever and interesting one, and all the characters are well depicted and portrayed. Fyfield's view of a small, insular English coastal town seen through the eyes of an American were both funny and breath taking in turns. And though I didn't agree with the manner in which the novel ends, I can still recommend this novel as an excellent read.