A review by spygrl1
Delusion by Peter Abrahams

1.0

Overall an entertaining Abrahams yarn, but not his best. What the novel lacks, I think, is a competent protagonist. The central character, Nell, wants to figure out what happened 20 years ago when her fiance was stabbed (and when she identified the wrong man as the killer) but Nell is ... naive and obtuse. I think her confusion and ineptitude are realistically drawn, but it makes narrative progress, especially in the final pages, haphazard. The only character who is intelligently, doggedly trying to piece together the truth is reporter Lee Anne, who the reader sees only through the eyes of other characters. And when (SPOILER) Lee Anne is killed, Abrahams has to resort to an unsatisfying rush of revelation and violence -- everyone converges on the Bastien mansions and exchanges injuries (blows to the head, slashing wounds, a shot to the head). The end leaves a few points hanging, and as other reviewers have noted the "coda" is disappointing. Justice isn't served and the characters' reactions seem off; both Nell and her daughter appear to forgive the man who covered up the fiance's murder and framed the wrong man, and no matter how sketchily drawn the character of the daughter is this forgiveness seems unlikely.