A Cornish Homecoming (The Fox Bay Saga)
England, 1930. This third-in-series novel encompasses various dramas at the Fox Bay Hotel on the Cornish Riviera. Widow matriarch Helen Fox rules the roost but is tempted to run off with local farm produce supplier Alfie. Returning family friend Leah, irrepressible con-artist, brings remnants of her recent aborted sting and a German spy too close to home. Another friend, Adam Coleridge, who has a thing for them both, is making amends for having almost condemned the place to financial ruin through bad investment. Eldest daughter Roberta insists on flying lessons despite losing half a leg in a motorbike accident; siblings Ben and Fiona play bit parts. Other characters, including Hollywood star Daisy, come and go—sufficient in number to warrant a three-page, nineteen-name ‘Dramatis Personae’ where details of backstories are available, as they are in books one and two.
This continuation has too much going on, to the detriment of the three main storylines. Helen’s business vs. romance dilemma, Leah’s risky con-tricks, and Bertie’s struggle with disability are each worthy of a standalone book. Here though they are hampered by distracting lesser events from the previous books (such as Fiona’s friend, pregnant stowaway Amy, intermittently mentioned but not featured), and even though these are briefly explained and neatly incorporated, frequent references to the past somehow leave one feeling short-changed; fine if you’re acquainted, not if you aren’t. One confusing mistake, the dialogue on page 167 presents the name Lynette once instead of Jeanette, the latter not even mentioned in the DP. Sporadically exciting but mainly tame.