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For years, Penny Vincenzi has been a bestselling author of huge blockbuster novels in her native England. Recently, the Overlook Press has brought Vincenzi's talent to the United States with the publication of her popular Spoils of Time trilogy, gaining her fans on this side of the Atlantic as well. Now Overlook is releasing some of Vincenzi's other smash hits for her new American fans, starting with ALMOST A CRIME, which was originally published in the United Kingdom in 1999.
The central character of ALMOST A CRIME is Octavia Fleming, mother of three and wife to Tom Fleming. The two of them have the textbook "power marriage," written up in national newspapers under the heading "Combine and Rule." Octavia runs a charity consulting group, procuring funds and providing publicity for charity groups. Tom is the co-founder of a political lobbying firm. At the novel's opening, readers see how the two combine their successful careers in ways that are mutually beneficial for themselves --- and for their companies. Sometimes, though, Tom's dubious business scruples run afoul of Octavia's moral sensibilities, such as when Tom urges Octavia to use her charity connections to raise support for a new development (run by one of Tom's clients) set to be built in a wilderness area.
These professional disagreements are merely window dressing for their deeper personal problems, which quickly come to a crisis. Tom has always felt a bit cowed by Octavia's hugely successful father, who has never made a secret of his disapproval of Tom. Both Tom and Octavia feel like they never have enough time to spend with their children, let alone with each other --- at least without clients around. But, to make matters far worse, Octavia soon learns that Tom has been having an affair.
Devastated by her discovery, Octavia resorts to personal and professional revenge. She makes a very public statement against one of Tom's biggest clients and begins her own relationship with a member of parliament, a man who is Tom's polar opposite in politics, manner and attitude. Octavia also confides in her closest, oldest friend Louise, who is quietly nursing her own grief --- and might be hiding more than a few secrets of her own.
Octavia's biggest dilemma is whether to pursue a divorce from Tom. If she were anyone but the female half of the country's premier "power couple," the choice would be easy. But, for someone like Octavia Fleming, the decision is far more complicated: "Their marriage would not be broken neatly and cleanly, nobody's was of course, but theirs would be a multiple fracture, more messily painful even than most, crossing as they constantly did the lines of public and private life. They would become not only single people, but famously unsuccessful ones, would no longer effortlessly straddle two worlds, but would scarcely stand on the top of one; their association and their marriage would be no longer powerful, it would be a public as well as a private failure." Not even Octavia, though, recognizes the repercussions the end of her marriage could have on everyone around her --- friends, family and business associates alike.
It's this ever-widening circle that Vincenzi so skillfully encompasses in ALMOST A CRIME. As in her previous novels, she practically defines the term "page turner," as she shifts rapidly from subplot to subplot, from character to character, effectively discouraging readers from putting down the book until they find out what happens next. From Octavia's father, his mistress and her children, to Octavia's friend Louise and her husband, Vincenzi deftly moves among her characters over the course of one eventful summer, leading up to the news of Princess Diana's death, which affects all the characters in one way or another.
ALMOST A CRIME may be a slight disappointment to readers who first met Vincenzi through the Spoils of Time trilogy, since it lacks the sweeping epic scope and probing character development that marked those magnificent novels. However, it should still contain enough characters, plot twists and subplots to satisfy most --- in fact, some American readers might be rather perplexed by the references to British politics, class distinctions and school systems. Nevertheless, Vincenzi's latest novel to cross the pond is likely to solidify her reputation for writing ambitious, glamorous novels that take readers deep into their characters' fascinating lives.
--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
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