THE DEVIL'S FEATHER by Minette Walters

FIC

WALTERS

International war correspondent Connie Burns suspects a British mercenary with many aliases of the rapes and vicious murders of several women in Sierra Leone. When Burns is transferred to Iraq, she is taken captive by this man (aka Keith MacKenzie, who is now training Iraqi security forces) tortured and then released after three days.

Trying to recover from this devastating experience, Burns returns to England and rents an isolated house in the Dorset countryside, with the certainty that MacKenzie will come looking for her.

This is an interesting psychological thriller which incorporates several contemporary issues.

ON CHESIL BEACH by Ian McEwan

FIC
MCEWAN

The setting is England in 1962. The novel opens in the wedding suite of Edward Mayhew, age 23 and his wife of a few hours, Florence, age 22. They are eating a post-ceremony dinner in a beautiful resort on Chesil Beach. They are strangely quiet, each consumed with thoughts of the remainder of the evening. Edward is anxious to consummate their relationship, while Florence is repelled at the idea. Because of the social mores of the time and their repressed English upbringings, neither one can discuss his feelings and apprehensions. The situation is almost unbearably tense. McEwan's description of the conflict is insightful and compassionate.