Thunder and Roses
Mary Jo Putney
copyright 1993. Topaz, a trademark of New American Library, a division of Penguin Books. 382pp. ISBN 0-451-40367-3. $4.99Okay, I admit a fondness for some of Topaz's metallic covers. This one, featuring a peacock with blue, green, and gold (with touches of the obligatory magenta, of course) is really lovely. I'm not certain it precisely goes with the story (penguins would have actually been a thematically better choice), but it sure is pretty.
This is, I believe, the first of the books in Putney's Fallen Angel series (since all of the characters in the series are unmarried in it): angry, embittered Nicholas Davies, earl of Abedare, will help Methodist schoolteacher Clare Morgan improve the dreadful working conditions of the local mine, which employs most of the residents of her Welsh town, if she will live with him and let him kiss her once a day. The hook, of course, is that he intends to persuade her to become his mistress in fact as well in name with those kisses.
Nicholas' persuasive, amorous efforts to seduce Clare cut just a little too close to the bone to be entirely discounted lightheartedly, and her silly attempts to turn the tables on the ``Demon Earl'' (Lord, what a cliche---Old Nick was much more clever, I thought) lacked the necessary realism to balance that underlying streak of male self centeredness all too recognizable to anyone familiar with sex starved young males. On the surface of it, not really that extraordinary a setup---in fact one, had it been handled a little differently, that would have appealed to me very much. So why all the hackles and angst on my part?
Usually her protagonists have something physically or emotionally wrong with them. In Nicholas' case it is his abandonment as a child by his Gypsy mother to a Grandfather who barely tolerates him, and the dreadful events surrounding the scandal in which he was accused of murdering his wife and grandfather, possibly in order to seduce his grandfather's (much younger) wife. Clare's problem is a more straightforward one: though a devout Methodist, she feels she has little grace---the touch of God.
For reasons explained elsewhere I didn't find Clare's lack of faith entirely convincing, though her response to Nicholas' sensual kisses certainly was. One of the things Putney does well is the pacing of her characters' growing attraction to each other, and this pair was no exception. If Clare's problems are entirely internal in nature, Nicholas has external ones as well, principly the mismanagement of the mine, which though it is on his land, actually belongs to a friend now inexplicably and murderously angry with him, as well as the inevitable comparisons made between his respected grandfather and himself, to which the residual effects of a scandal still cling. Alas, clever twists and turns aren't Putney's strong suit, and anyone familiar with the genre will be able to deduce very early on who the real adulterers and real murderers are.
Putney combines several elements to enrich the fabric of her story, of which the mine is the most important, and most vivid, though I also enjoyed the billiard games. As usual, I wished for yet sharper images. I can't say I was entirely comfortable with the depiction of the gypsies, though I haven't enough knowledge of their culture to be more specific. Aside from my discomfort along those lines, and the little pop psychological analyses Putney's characters give each other towards the ends of her books, the story was an enjoyable one. Three stars. (Two and a half?).
Sylvus Tarn Last modified: Fri Sep 11 12:51:58 EDT 1998
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