The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell
| The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell | |
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| Category: Crime | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A story of mysogyny, entitlement and murder with bags of social comment. I loved it. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 368 | Date: January 2023 |
| Publisher: Faber & Faber | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0571374939 | |
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The room was full of the sort of people Tatler thinks you should know.
The Other Half is the story of two men, both with what looks like the same surname. Rupert Beauchamp is the heir to a baronetcy and his thirtieth birthday party is a catered-with-butler event at McDonalds in Camden Town. Think Bollinger and cocaine. His surname is pronounced 'Beecham'. Caius Beauchamp is a detective inspector with the Metropolitan police and is bi-racial. His surname is pronounced as you see it. The two encounter each other when Caius, out for a run, stumbles across the body of Clemmie O'Hara, Rupert's girlfriend. Rupert thought that she was being deliberately late for his party. She was dead under a bush.
Clemmie was in thrall to Rupert. She'd been dropping half-brick-shaped hints to Rupert about getting married. Rupert had been saying for about a decade that he wanted to be free of Clemmie. He was usually telling it to Helena (Nell) Waddingham, whom he swears he loves despite the fact that it's fairly obvious that he loves no one but himself. Nell has just broken up with Casper, in whose flat she is still living, and appears to be drawn to Alex. Throw in people with names like Jolyon Armstrong-Wile-de Fflouffe, Tabitha de la Croix, Bella Villiers D'Arcy and Julian Hinckley-Smythe and you know pretty much who you're dealing with.
I very nearly gave up on this book fairly early on. I'd had enough of the Prince Harry fandango where privileged people seem to take potshots at sitting ducks to the extent that you wonder if any of them have anything to recommend them. Could I read a story about them? Well, it turned out that I could and that I could thoroughly enjoy it. The Other Half is exquisitely plotted, with characters, most of whom you feel no guilt about loathing, which is always a bonus.
I loved this book and I'd like to thank the publishers for letting Bookbag have a review copy. I can't wait to read what Charlotte Vassell writes next.
You might also enjoy Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King's Daughter by Simon Brett or for something very upper class, try Her Majesty the Queen Investigates: Murder Most Royal by S J Bennett.
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