The Lion’s Shadow
This story of a young woman’s involvement in England’s suffragette movement cannot decide if it is a romance or a mystery. It works more successfully as a romance.
Cassandra Whitney is no Gloria Steinem feminist: she spends as much time describing her wardrobe as she does her suffragette participation. Although she and explorer Griffin St. John have the obligatory sparring matches, they admit their love for each other early on so there is no tiresome pretense of “will they or won’t they.” Jailed after a protest, Cassandra and Griffin’s sister go on a hunger strike and are force fed as so many suffragettes were. Other than that nod to history, the suffragette plot seems to have been given short shrift, existing merely as an excuse for Cassandra and Griffin to quarrel.
It is as if Arends was filming an independent movie and could not afford the licensing fees for real personages like the Pankhursts. The mystery portion, in which both Cassandra and Griffin are stalked and attacked, is less than compelling. However, Cassandra and Griffin are enjoyable characters who will next appear in The Lion Sleeps, which I will read in hopes of finding them in a plot worthy of their personalities.
