'A Lesser Evil' (Lesley Pearse)

Lesley Pearse typically pens ‘surviving-against-all-odds’ novels, about beautiful, talented (but poor) young women whose fathers, stepfathers or guardians abuse them until they flee, penniless, into scary streets. Eventually, after torturous travail, they a) achieve superb careers or b) become famous. Either way, they meet the men of their dreams and live blissfully ever after. The End.

With A Lesser Evil, Pearse injects touches of both Martina Cole and Minette Walters into her work, constructing a strong social commentary hidden behind a rather vacuous tale. Fifi and Dan Reynolds are an earnest young pair (surviving against all odds, of course) who move into a squalid London street to escape her snooty parents and find that the members of their impoverished new community are up to no good.

Fifi and Dan’s characters are inescapably two-dimensional; their neighbours and families little more than stereotypes. However, as the watery plot thickens into stew and the issues grow darker, it’s fairly easy to become entangled in the drama; to hold thumbs that the fluffy protagonists will prevail and a) achieve superb careers or b) become famous.

I’d recommend A Lesser Evil to fans of Pearse, Cole or Walters and make the following serving suggestion: sunshine, sunglasses, lounger, umbrella, beach/pool.

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