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Summary
Author Notes
Margaret Yorke was born Margaret Beda Larminie Nicholson in Surrey, but lived in Dublin until 1937, before moving back to England. During the war, she served in the Woman's Royal Naval Service as a driver. She then worked in the libraries of two Oxford colleges, and was the first woman ever to work in Christ Church library. She campaigned for Public Lending Rights for authors in Britain, and was also chairman of the Crime Writers' Association between 1979 and 1980.
Her first novel, Summer Flight, was published in 1957. She then turned to the subject of crime with Dead in the Morning, published in 1970. With No Medals for the Major published in 1974, she began writing novels of suspense, which include The Point of Murder, Serious Intent and Act of Violence.
In 1982, she won the Swedish Academy Detection award for the best translated novel, The Scent of Fear. Her books are published in 16 countries. In 1993, she won the Golden Handcuffs award, which is given in recognition of the popularity of the country's leading crime writer within the library service and to its borrowers.
Margaret Yorke died November 17, 2012.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this quiet suspense thriller, Yorke ( Criminal Damage ) once again deftly explores the darker side of the lives of characters who, to all appearances, could be the folks next door. Walter Brown didn't begin to hit his wife Hermione until after their two daughters had grown up and left home, but throughout their marriage he has enjoyed controlling her life, relishing opportunities to taunt her and see her ``utterly broken.'' Hermione has begun to balk at doing ``her duty'' in bed, but Walter has his secret visits to prostitutes in London, where if he gets rough, it's only what they deserve. He doesn't notice that his wife is developing her own secrets: she gains a friend in a woman she meets in a cafeteria and finds work cleaning two houses, which gives her two afternoons out each week and her own pocket money. The appreciation of her friend and her employers arms Hermione to begin to withstand Walter's relentless scrutiny and humiliating comments. She is beginning to consider that she, too, has rights when a meddlesome woman notes the changes in her quiet neighbor's routine. Although, in typical Yorke style, the story builds slowly toward its climax, events of the aftermath fully reward the patient reader. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The author adds domestic abuse to her chronicles of British middle-class society (A Small Deceit, etc.) as she contemplates Hermione Brown, a chronically frightened mouse married to Walter--a pompous, penny-pinching monster ruined by his own brutal childhood. Their two grown daughters have escaped the loveless household in Merbury village in record time, and Hermione is beginning to silently rebel, taking on two cleaning jobs without Walter's knowledge, thankful for the increasing frequency of his late nights. Walter's life has been changing, too, as he finds other outlets for his savagery. He's not finished with Hermione, though, and a last violent confrontation finds Walter in the headlines and Hermione in a fight for her future. Repetitive at times and a bit too leisurely in pace, but filled with quiet menace and sharply observed characters: one of veteran Yorke's better efforts.
Library Journal Review
Yorke ( A Small Deceit , LJ 9/1/91, among others) has created an elegantly simple, cleverly paced novel of suspense guaranteed to keep readers on the edge of their seats. Slipping with ease inside the minds of her two main characters, Hermione and Walter Brown, Yorke paints a grimly compelling portrait of a marriage gone horribly wrong. Walter is tyrannical and unreasonable; Hermione, his emotionally battered wife, is a virtual slave to his every whim. Walter's ever-present rage is stoked when Hermione begins to show signs of change. A new friend, a part-time job--what will be next? Will Hermione find the courage to leave Walter before he explodes in truly murderous rage? As suspense builds, the reader roots for Hermione to make her bid for freedom before it's too late. Exciting to the end, Yorke's latest is highly recommended for popular fiction collections.-- Beth Ann Mills, New Rochelle P.L., N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.