The Married Girls

It's difficult to remember a more disappointing read. For most of The Married Girls, I debated whether to keep reading or call it quits. The story itself was rather meh for much of the book, plodding along, not so terrible or offensive that I felt compelled to give up, but barely holding my interest. Finally, some three-quarters of the way through, I was rewarded for my persistence: we had a truly interesting story! Only for Diney Costeloe to deliver one of the most frustrating, irritating endings I can think of. I nearly threw my Nook.

The set-up is this: Britain is finally emerging from the long shadows of World War II, with the war over, the blackouts done, rationing on its way out. Against this backdrop we meet Charlotte and Daphne, married respectively to Billy and Felix, and building new lives post-war.

Charlotte is a German Jew who arrived as a refugee on the Kindertransport and whose past threatens to overtake her in the form of Harry, who - somewhat confusingly - has an outsize presence in the first half of the book as the mouthpiece of an ailing mob boss, before Costeloe seemingly tires of him and sends him packing, quite literally. Although the set-up is that this is all hush-hush, none of this seems to be a secret from Charlotte's husband. Her story takes a turn for the dramatic, which improves the entire book...until the end. More on that in a minute.

Daphne, on the other hand, is a piece of work, with more secrets than I can count, but one big one that, if revealed, will clearly cause he neatly constructed life as the Squire's wife to unravel. For in Felix Bellinger, she has found a man with a title who can take her away from her beginnings in the East End, both literally and figuratively. Very early it's clear that Daphne has no affection, let alone love, for her husband, and it's this, as much as her secrets that threatens to overwhelm her at every turn.

Once events really begin to unfold, the story improves and does so until the final chapter which, instead of allowing the story to progress winds it up quickly, unsatisfactorily, and perhaps with an eye to a sequel. And although I liked Charlotte and don't mind the idea of knowing how her story concludes, it's not a sequel I'll be reading.

Two-and-a-half stars.