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Hatfield, Kate : DROWNING IN HONEY

Transworld Publishers Ltd, 1995

ISBN 9780552142847

(Signed by Author) The issue of domestic violence, including the quadrangular interplay of choice, acceptance, victimization and responsibility, is intelligently examined in British editor and writer Hatfield's first novel published under her own name. (As Daphne Wright, she issued The Distant Kingdom with Delacorte in 1988). Out-of-work actor Michael Beechen claims self-defense in the brutal stabbing murder of his physically abusive harridan of a wife, Penelope, a seemingly neglectful mother. When successful Bath businesswoman Melissa Wraxall is called to jury service, she finds parallels between the progressive decline of the Beechens' marriage and her own failing relationship with her increasingly irascible husband, Martin. The trial?combined with the romantic advent of fellow juror Adam Blake?forces Melissa to reappraise her own behavior. As the trial progresses, both jurors and reader realize that the complete truth is always elusive. Hatfield cites statistical evidence that (presumably British) men are often on the receiving end of domestic violence; she also does some provocative theorizing on why people make perverse marriage choices. Stylishly written and often riveting in the trial scenes, the novel maintains a refreshing ambiguity about the right way for people to handle intimate relationships., Very Good/No DJ as Issued

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