THE HOUSE BY THE SEA

A strange story, redeemed from melodrama by imaginative, responsive prose; distinguished by an intensity of emotionalism often close to abandon. Edwina, who retreats at 40 after a lifetime of overshadowed spinsterdom, to a house by the sea on the coast of Cornwall, finds her isolation broken by the fugitive, later-to-be-revealed murderer, sullen, violent Ross Dennehay, Ungainly, insecure, unsatisfied, Edwina finds in the younger boy her first opportunity to protect, to love, but is unable untimately to save him from apprehension, from death. The distortion in character gives this its unusual, often compelling character, but is unlikely to attract average reading tastes.