BKDSPSSN.RVW   990819

"Dispossession", Chaz Brenchley, 1996, 0-340-65992-0,
C$8.99/UK#5.99/A$14.95
%A   Chaz Brenchley
%C   338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH England
%D   1996
%G   0-340-65992-0
%I   Hodder and Stoughton
%O   C$8.99/UK#5.99/A$14.95
%P   378 p.
%T   "Dispossession"

The back cover suggests that this book is listed as a horror title. 
Like all really good fiction, it defies categorization, but I would
have suggested that "thriller" or "mystery" might have been closer to
the mark.  It does have many features common to horror works, but
without the plodding certainty of something nasty waiting to jump out
at you that is typical of the genre.

We have, first of all, amnesia.  Not the overused "where am I, who are
you, who am I?" type, but a more realistic loss of a few months. 
Frightening enough, in this case, since the protagonist seems to have
gotten himself married in a real awful hurry, and not to his prior
lover.  And appears to have become involved in some really
inexplicable stuff.

There is the inexplicable stuff to work out, hence the mystery.  The
working out is impeded by people with a great deal of violence on
their minds, hence the thrills.

There is also a fallen angel, a very interesting machina ex deus.  He
could be very easily replaced in the plot, but the book would be quite
different without him.

There is even, in common with most of what I've reviewed in the past,
a technical component.  Aside from the fact that the password
protection on MS Word is trivially easy to break, and there are other
ways to get at the data even if it weren't, the computer stuff is
quite realistic, even down to the software that lawyers would use. 
(Personally, I find the change of word processors a much more
compelling mystery than the change of lovers, but that's as may be.)

None of this really explains why I am so eager to find another of
Brenchley's books.  His characters are sympathetic but, in a book,
that's not always a good thing.  (They are also reasonably and
realistically complex, which is.)  His plotting is interesting, and
fairly original in places, but not necessarily gripping.  The dialogue
is good but not brilliant, and the description is not exactly lyrical.

What I find most attractive is the play of ideas.  The apparent
cruelty of a morality less convenient than our own.  The concept of
fidelity in such a situation.  The weird outworkings of motivations to
protect.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1999   BKDSPSSN.RVW   990819