Title:
Want To Know A Secret?
Author: Sue
Moorcroft
ISBN: 978-1-906931-26-1
Published: Choc Lit (First published as ‘Family
Matters’ by Robert Hale 2008)
Date: 2010
I picked up this book for educational
purposes. Romance as a genre is out of my comfort zone. But as a writer, I have
a problem. I have difficulty making my characters likable. Believable, sure.
Sympathetic, not so much. And who would be better placed than a successful
romance writer to show how it’s done? After all, ‘likable’ must be the core
requirement for romance.
I wasn’t disappointed.
Moorcroft is a skillful crafter. Plot tempo
and flow are well-judged and carefully thought out, although it did start to
lack credibility towards the end. Characterization is fair, but doesn’t worry
too much about having some cardboard cut-outs as stage-props. In fact is not
squeamish about doling out a fair deal of two-dimensional structural support to
all the characters. There’s nothing wrong with remembering that a story is an artifice,
and an impressionist painting has just as much validity as a super-realism piece
or a Chinese ink drawing: they reflect reality in a different manner.
The flow is so well controlled that
although I was reading with a specific and technical purpose, keeping my mind
on the job and not galloping gleefully along the plot line was difficult. It’s a
very enjoyable book. It’s a testament to Moorcroft’s skill that only a
minuscule proportion of her readers will notice the crafting techniques – all they’ll
think was ‘That was great, where can I get more of this?’ Which is pretty much exactly
the response you want, as a writer.
Plot? Ah. Downtrodden intelligent woman
discovers dirty shenanigans her mean husband has been keeping from her and everything
comes good. Enjoy.
What about that issue with the likable characters?
Surprisingly simple. Here, it’s done mostly by opinions voiced by other
characters. The figures you need to like don’t necessarily do likable things,
but because other people keep going on about how great they are, the reader
accepts it. It’s an incredible example of peer pressure and social conditioning
working just as well on the written sheet as in the real world. The technique
balances nicely with the narrative tactic of different points of view – which incidentally
the author is not too particular about swapping in mid-gallop. Another one of
those ‘rules’ which can be broken without repercussions, as long as you take
the reader with you. You have to be good to pull it off.
In short, I’d recommend the book. A little
tailing-off towards the end and a few shadows of slap-dash here and there are
the only reasons I’d give it 4 rather than 5 Moose-Hoofs up. But then Moose only have four hooves.
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