Rickie Alleyn, son of Alleyn and Troy, has come to 'the island' (unnamed but must be a Channel Island) to write a novel. He has an introduction from his parents to the local gentry in the form of the mildly eccentric Pharamond family, and falls in love with the elegant and exotic Julia, much to her amusement. The locals on other hand are a suspicious bunch - his nosey landlady and her shady husband; the disreputable 'artist' Sydney Jones, living in a squalid hovel; Dulcie Harkness who is pregnant, father unknown among a supposedly long-list of possibles; and her loony uncle, a Hellfire revivalist who has founded his own sect. When Dulcie Harkness is found dead in a ditch, the apparent result of a riding accident, it is Rickie who notices that a wire has been removed from the scene - he notifies his father, who is on his way to the island in any event as a result of a tip-off that it is a centre for drug dealing.
What can we find to say that is good about Last Ditch? It makes a change for Marsh's religious fanatic to be male rather than female. Cuthbert Harkness - for that is his impressive name - is much the best thing about this book, and is worthy of a better setting. But that is about all. This is lamentable stuff. The plot is largely preposterous and Marsh's attempts at thriller writing - Ricky is kidnapped and held hostage - are both leaden and unconvincing (since the reader knows no real harm is going to come to the child of her protagonist). Julia Pharamond reveals that she is in fact related to the Lampreys, but this reminder of Marsh's glory days only serves to illustrate how far from her pinnacle this book is. As with others among her late books this is for completists only - or those who have a particular interest in books which introduce the children of long-standing protagonists.
NickH.
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