Book Review: A question of trust - P. Vincenzi

Reading Penny Vincenzi's books is always a pleasure, like stealing half an hour of reading time eating a chocolate (maybe even more than one!) during a working week.
Her writing style is rich, smooth, captivating and enchanting. After few pages you travel right inside her world of gossip, high society, richness and fashion, let alone marriages, friendships and human relations in general.
And this latest novel does not disappoint either, as normal it is a thick book, over 600 pages, but you get so involved in the plot that you do not even realise it is so long.
The characters in the book are a lot, but it is easy to get to know them and start having preferences for one or the other. The main characters are Tom, the postman son who is smart and brilliant and sees in front of him a career in politics, and Diane, the rich and glamorous daughter of the village's lord and lady of the manor. They both go through very rough patches in their lives, but, even if very differently, they both survive and grow stronger because of them. In my view, while Tom is very likable at the beginning of the story, he then become not a very nice person, selfish and hypocrite; while Diana, a spoiled young girl at the start of the plot, becomes a warm, positive figure while the story evolves. My favourite people in the book are Jillie, a solar, strong woman that becomes a doctor and reacts in a very respectable manner to a very bad break up; and Ned, another doctor, who fights for the right of the children to have their mothers with them while in hospital.
In summary a very enchanting novel, rich and dark in its gossipy plot. A "guilty treat" if you want, to savour and escape from your day to day life.

Overall rating: 7      Plot: 7     Writing style: 8      Cover:  5

Title: A question of trust
Author: Penny Vincenzi
Publisher: Headline Review
Pages: 608
Publication year: 2017

Plot:

1950s London. Tom Knelston is charismatic, working class and driven by ambition, ideals and passion. He is a man to watch. His wife Alice shares his vision. It seems they are the perfect match.Then out of the blue, Tom meets beautiful and unhappily married Diana Southcott, a fashion model. An exciting but dangerous affair is inevitable and potentially damaging to their careers. And when a child becomes ill, Tom is forced to make decisions about his principles, his reputation, his marriage, and most of all, his love for his child.

The Author:

Penny Vincenzi is one of the UK’s best-loved and most popular authors. Since her first novel, Old Sins, was published in 1989, she has written fifteen bestselling novels, including The Decision and the number one bestsellers The Best of Times and An Absolute Scandal.Her first ‘proper’ job was at the Harrods Library, aged sixteen, after which she went to secretarial college. She joined the Mirror and later became a journalist, writing for The Times, the Daily Mail and Cosmopolitan amongst many others, before turning to fiction. Several years later, over seven million copies of Penny’s books have been sold worldwide and she is universally held to be the ‘doyenne of the modern blockbuster’ (Glamour). Penny Vincenzi has four daughters, and divides her time between London and Gower, South Wales.