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Crouch, Julia - 'Every Vow You Break'
Hardback: 384 pages (Mar. 2012) Publisher: Headline ISBN: 0755378016

An English family travel to Trout Island in upstate New York for the summer holidays. Marcus is an actor and has been asked to play the lead in Macbeth in a community theatre project by his old friend James. He hopes that this will be the kick start that his career needs. Lisa decides to accompany him, together with her teenager twins, Olly and Bella, and her four-year-old son, Jack. She is still recovering emotionally and physically from an abortion that Marcus insisted upon. Lisa hopes that a summer away, in a new environment, will help her, and Marcus, get their marriage and life back on track.

The family are disappointed to find that the house they are loaned is dirty, cold and unwelcoming and Trout Island is a long way from the excitements of New York. Marcus is soon caught up in rehearsals, but Lisa finds life alone with a small child, without her work to distract her, is lonely and boring.

Lisa is delighted when an old flame, Stephen, comes on the scene. She hasn’t seen him since they had an affair during the early days of her marriage to Marcus, which she stopped as soon as she found she was carrying Marcus’s babies. Stephen is now a wealthy, well-known movie star and Lisa finds herself falling for him all over again.

Stephen appears and disappears suddenly, often in disguise. He is hiding away from the media and his fans and recovering from the attentions of a stalker that caused him to have a break-down. He makes friends with all the family, showing them the area and taking them out for trips. Bella meets a young man that causes immense jealousy in Olly. She tries to tell her parents about her concerns and the dubious friends that Olly has made but Marcus is busy with the play and friends in the cast and Lisa is absorbed in her feelings for Stephen.

Soon Lisa finds herself drawn into a relationship with Stephen but is troubled by a mysterious woman and a serious of accidents and incidents make her concerned for her own, and Stephen’s, safety.

EVERY VOW YOU BREAK is a good read. It was interesting reading about small-town America rather than the high life in the major cities for a change. The only caveat I have is that the only character I found myself having sympathy for was Bella and would have liked to find out more about her story.

Susan White, England
May 2012

Details of the author's other books with links to reviews can be found on the Books page.
More European crime fiction reviews can be found on the Reviews page.




last updated 5/05/2012 09:23