MARINE

Marine is a pretty girl and clever; she is a pathological liar; and her bad habit of taking things has now reached a point where she has pulled off three large thefts- most recently the 1100 pound payroll of the firm where she is working, under an alias. While the police do not catch up with her, Mark Rutland, a member of the firm, does, returns the money, and suggests the marriage which she cannot refuse. Only later does he realize that her dislike of all men extends to a deeper sexual disgust. Mark persuades her to see a psychiatrist, but she tries to fool him with her facile fantasies and accomplished prevarication. Only occasionally is she unnerved when the doctor touches on her past-poverty and the mother she claims is dead. She is responsible for the accident in which Mark is injured- and her horse (her only real object affection) is killed. And she finally runs away, to learn that her mother has just died and to face the submerged but half-sensed tragedy which ends any further escape.... Winston Graham, a versatile storyteller, adds sympathy and suspense to this misspent life to provide some well-spent moments of entertainment for the reader.