The Pearl and the Carnelian

This uneven first novel looks at the dark side of a naive socialite’s political zeal during the interwar period in Britain. In 1934, Lady Lucy Fitzmartin, 19, raised in a rigid English home, is writing society articles for a newspaper, but her ambitions are much greater. She becomes involved with the British Union of Fascists, a movement to form a British alliance with Hitler’s Germany in order to avoid a war between the nations. Meanwhile, Lucy becomes smitten with her new, exotic young lady’s maid, Hester Blake, whose own ambition is to see grand houses and travel the world. They begin a romantic relationship, dangerously unacceptable at that time. Lucy becomes more entrenched with the Reich by writing inflammatory articles, spying on a friend, and attending violent protest meetings. Despite a plot featuring blackmail and betrayal, the conclusion is rather tepid, and the novel’s readability suffers from numerous misplaced commas; however, the author effectively captures the era’s political ferment. [em](BookLife) [/em]