Contemporary
See life from a mistress’s perspective, her views of her lover, a man who cheats on his Tory MP wife and his mistress.
Set in London, Norfolk’s Blakeney, and Suffolk’s Southwold, Orford and Aldeburgh, A Murderous Affair? is a scandalous, thrilling, and humorous tale written from a mistress’s perspective which recounts her relationship, the changes in social and sexual habits around her and so much more.
The protagonist describes her relationship with the man she has fallen in love with, who cheats on her as well as his Tory MP wife, over twenty years in the eighties into the noughties. The mistress offers ridiculous, funny, painful anecdotes and vignettes as she recounts the start of their relationship and how it blossomed even as she was being betrayed. Along the way, she muses on the loneliness of being a mistress, what it is like to be the third person in a marriage and in turn what it feels like to be cheated on, as well as aging and other musings about life in general.
As the years push her to the edge, does she casually and unwittingly take what she might think is her revenge, only to discover her lover or even his wife has been one step ahead of her…?
Here's what readers have to say about this book....
A thoroughly enjoyable debut novel by Stacey Whatling. Pithy, witty and saucy, with an acutely observant take on life in both the city and countryside plus the ecstasy and agony of being a mistress. It speeds along at a cracking pace and keeps the plot on track throughout, leaving the reader guessing from chapter to chapter. A very satisfying read.
I was hooked from the start and did not want to put it down. The author has captured the range of human emotions in such a descriptive, accomplished way as we get to know the characters during the timeline of the affair. A compelling read with a twist in the tale
A romantic memoir - the long term mistress of a type of roguish but charming man who probably felt at home in the 80’s but who we might admire less today, looks back over a life of excitement combined with disappointments and jealousy. The evocation of a City of London just coming into its pomp is cleverly done and so too the gentler descriptions of countryside and European travel. It’s impossible not to feel sympathy with the narrator even if we wonder why she doesn’t act more determinedly to shape her own life - but perhaps that is the mistress’s lot. She does of course reach a breaking point - though even that has an odd quietness to it, in the narrator’s mind, despite its own drama. Overall, an enjoyable book to read and the narrator’s wistfulness remains with us.
A great read and full of adventure. Wonderful references and romance from a first class author