The Question

Anyone expecting sweet-as-saccharin writing from actress and cake-baker extrordinaire Jane Asher will be sorely disappointed in The Question--a stylish, acerbic novel which treats its topics of betrayal and revenge with a caustic wit that is at once aggressive and intense in its execution. The glacial and detached Eleanor--late fifties, well preserved, hitherto uncomplicated and affluent lifestyle bolstered by the successful career of her husband, childless but content--discovers that her 30-year marriage has been a sham, and as the full impact of John's transgression forces her into action, Eleanor turns into a wilful and calculating shrew hell-bent on revenge. There is never any doubt that Eleanor will make her perfidious husband pay for his misconduct, but Asher's canny treatment of a familiar subject pushes the story to its limit, making it a surprisingly classy and pleasingly unpredictable study of a woman who all but loses her sense of reason to the green eyed monster.

The Question certainly cannot to be compared with the cosy aga-sagas that perhaps one would automatically associate with Asher's familiar public persona. Instead, be prepared to be ambushed by the sharp writing, a plot that tumbles tartly into overdrive from the very first line, and the dramatic twist that shapes the ultimate, pungent and shockingly cruel ending.--Susan Harrison