Saturday May 19 2012
Art & Literature Archive
Village Art & Literature
Writing for redemption
Posted on January 20 2009 at 12:33:56 0 comments
The Village Book Review:A Village Fate by Victoria Russell
A serial killer is on the loose in the slightly quirky village of Alvecester, HIV infections are stacking up quickly, mainly among village bank workers, and the global economy is in meltdown.
Warwick Hopton, meanwhile, is living at his parents’ house after the collapse of his peripatetic optician business, a number of failed marriages, chronic alcoholism and a nervous breakdown.
After stumbling across the first body, he becomes embroiled in the plot and over the next few hundred pages of A Village Fate seeks personal salvation by trying to track down a killer.
Art, as ever, is imitating life here, as the author, Victoria Russell, is also at “rock bottom” and living back at home in Alvechurch.
The weeks spent at the new library in the village, tapping away on a laptop were a therapy in themselves, says Victoria – and reading the story, you can almost feel the tension dripping away to be replaced by sunbeams of optimism, albeit against a backdrop of blood, murder, plotting and anguish.
This is not a story for those who are easily offended; it is spread liberally with the sort of political incorrectness an editor would remove on instinct, along with some humour that would be better off in a fourth-form changing room.
But in this unedited, raw state it certainly romps along and if you live locally, you know everywhere the action is taking place – with a large part of it being centred on The “Blue” Lion pub and the village Indian restaurant!
A Village Fate is currently self-published on the fascinating website www.lulu.com from which anyone can order a printed and bound copy for £13.95 or download it for £3.13.
Review by RP
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