NICOLA

by Audrey Erskine Lindop ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 1959

This author (on other publishers' lists) has ranged from shock and scandal to dark personality areas (The Outer Ring, Tall Headlines, The Singer Not The Song, etc.) and again will not fail her readers in the plot of a respectable, pompous bank manager and his hidden infatuation for Nicola, a childhood friend who has been in jail as an accessory after the fact. Nicola (born Ethel) Barnes' return to Stacey St. Agnes, after her release from three years in prison, re-arouses Ted Morer's antipathy-attraction, and his mother's championship of the girl puts him on the defensive. When she comes to live in their house, with Lucy Morer achieving even more kudos for the benignity with which she treats the mistress of a hanged murderer, Nicola, sensitive towards Ted's feeling about her, is able to keep him in place. But when Lucy's kindly magic rubs off on them both Nicola and Ted are able to be themselves and, when they find they are really in love, are ready to face the village. But not Lucy who displays her guilt halo in reviling Nicola when they announce their plans to marry, reverses the field with a big engagement party -- and is revealed by Nicola as her slanderer, betrayer and almost her murderer. Lucy's attempts to take the blame for framing Nicola break Ted's faith in the girl and reaffirm the village's belief in Lucy's saintliness. Love to death and damnation: Nicola and the killer who had her love and loyalty -- Lucy and her refusal to let Ted be free -- and the chorus of village voices, in hatred and condemnation- and here and there in true compassion -- break through a constrictive respectability for a tabloid tale in terms of concreted characters, for behind-the-headlines readers. Saleable.

Pub Date: Sept. 3, 1959

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1959

Categories: FICTION