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An Englishman's Guide to Infidelity: Love, betrayal and genteel crime by [Stuart Campbell]

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Stuart Campbell

An Englishman's Guide to Infidelity: Love, betrayal and genteel crime Kindle Edition

by Stuart Campbell (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Jack, the owner of a failing bookshop, is embezzling from a client. Thea is a philosophy lecturer with a taste for pinching cash. There's something amiss with their marriage, but an occasional spot of larceny provides the frisson to keep it going, as well as the funds for the kids' school fees. But things start to go badly wrong when an old lover turns up demanding a slice of the action. Could you live with a would-be murderer? This is the question for Thea and Jack in this fast-moving psychological drama with an undercurrent of black comedy.

Length: 243 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled	Language: English

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About the Author

Stuart Campbell is a former Professor of Linguistics who nowadays writes quirky novels about betrayal, love and redemption. A Londoner by birth, he has lived in Sydney for many years. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 780 KB
Print Length: 243 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: Stuart Campbell; 2 edition (17 December 2014)
Sold by: Amazon Australia Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00R63GXW8
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:

Not Enabled
Word Wise: Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Customer Reviews: 15 customer ratings
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #327,525 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #7344 in Crime Thrillers (Kindle Store)
- #1859 in Conspiracy Thrillers
- #9646 in Murder Thrillers

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Margaret

A Page Turner

Reviewed in Australia on 7 April 2015

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A page turner with complex characters and a slowly unfolding plot. It kept me intrigued to the end.

4 people found this helpful

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Francis Guenette

A highly enjoyable mystery that plumbs the depths of human foibles

Reviewed in Australia on 11 January 2016

People see the world through personal and often flawed lenses. A good author leads the reader into a character’s thoughts and actions. At some point, the reader is forced to question the characters take on what’s happening. In, An Englishman’s Guide to Infidelity, Stuart Campbell proves himself to be particularly deft in his ability to create unreliable narrators.

The book opens with Jack and Thea as they prepare for a dinner out to celebrate their wedding anniversary. It isn’t long before it is patently obvious that dark currents lurk beneath the surface of both these people. By the end of the first chapter any illusions of normalcy are long gone. Thea is clearly an ethics professor who lacks ethics and Jack is relating that there are ten university degrees among his fellow group of inmates awaiting trial at the Remand Center.

And so the reader enters a roller-coaster ride as the author moves deftly from Jack’s perspective, to that of a young police woman struggling with her own issues when she is pulled into a murder investigation, to Thea’s. It isn’t long before the reader comes to see that not one of these characters can be trusted.

The writing is smooth and delicious. A couple of old people move like a pair of flapping galleons; a father speaks like a piece of stainless steel medical equipment, when he speaks at all; an apartment is sparsely furnished with desperately modern pieces and abstract paintings that veered between the decorative and the sadomasochistic.

A thoroughly enjoyable read, a mystery that unfurls with just enough twists and turns to keep readers guessing right to the closing pages.

3 people found this helpful

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Rod McDonald

A very satisfying read

Reviewed in Australia on 31 July 2016

A handful of themes, nicely threaded together: part mystery, part whodunnit, part a depiction of an interesting relationship - and not only that, but unlike so many books and plays, it knew how to end.

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KJD

A beautifully crafted, off-key story of murder, mystery, misunderstanding and misdirection.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 April 2016

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Told in first person by the three leading characters—Jack, the husband, Thea, the wife, and Fiona, the possibly deranged cop—this is a tour de force by Mr Campbell.

The married couple is well realised, believable, and described with all their faults and insecurities, but neither is completely likeable. Jack is weak and Thea is cold, and both have guilty secrets to hide from the authorities and from each other. I had a slight problem with the motivation of the detective, Fiona, which seems extremely suspect at first. By the end of the story, though, Mr Campbell explained her rather strange behaviour to my satisfaction. In fact, the whole story arc is extremely well handled, and, I can see this working well as a three-handed play.

By necessity, the minor characters are less well defined, but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment. They did what they needed to do by acting as antagonists and moving the story along rather well.

I have only one extremely minor gripe. One scene—the one with the golf clubs (no spoilers)—came as a complete surprise and should have left me shocked, shattered, and angry. Unfortunately, it didn’t, which probably had something to do with matter-of-fact way the victim reacted to it left me somewhat underwhelmed and a little disappointed. More should have been made of the outcome and the payback. In fact, I wanted more of this part of the story, but Mr Campbell preferred to leave us hanging. As I said, it is a minor gripe, but enough to cost the novel half a star on my arbitrary and rather harsh rating scale.

All that being said, I have no hesitation to recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys well-written, well-constructed, off-key, and darkly humorous stories. Nice work, Mr Campbell. Nice work indeed.

3 people found this helpful

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J Smith

Forty Apple Trees....the place to be!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 January 2016

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I find it refreshing to read a book from a different genre to the one that I am used to. The language and expressions are different, the writer's mind is working differently. Personally, I find it blows the cobwebs away from long-dormant corners of my mind.
To begin with, I wasn't impressed with the characters. They seemed smug, overprivileged, vain and selfish, cocooned in their twee world of self-satisfaction. But I persevered, and was rewarded. They started to grow on me, and within themselves, and I began to appreciate their creator's dry wit in the background. Sometimes I stopped to go back and read a sentence again and, sure enough, I had missed a throwaway line that was delivered in a matter-of-fact, almost deadpan manner, which on closer scrutiny was absolutely hilarious. So I slowed my reading speed right down. And this is the way I became used to this author's style; first tongue-in-cheek, then laugh- out-loud. Sometimes subtle, sometimes over the top. The narration of a completely fantastical chain of events, so enjoyable that it didn't matter if sometimes they were highly improbable. The reader wanted to believe that they could happen, so they became real enough. It was then that I entered the world of these characters and truly began to enjoy myself, because I began to care more about them, their myriad weaknesses gradually becoming endearing rather than off-putting.
This is Fiona;
"A keen breeze ruffled the apple trees, bringing a distant whiff of something rural and sour. I slid a few inches along the bench to find some sun. I asked for a glass of water."
And this is Jack;
"Do come in," the man said without hesitation. He was thin, shaven headed, and wearing a dressing gown. "Actually I think I've got the wrong house," I said. "I think I want next door." "Nonsense, Francis. Uncle Clive particularly wants to see you," the man said, leaning forward and clamping my elbow with a clammy hand. I could smell a nasty whiff of unwashed genitals from within the gown......"
I have to say my Kindle almost slipped from my hands as I fell about laughing.
Soon after the middle of the book the tone becomes much more that of a detective novel, and there was less humour, apart from instances such as when Thea refuses to allow Francis to use her loo and he has to go outside to his van and relieve himself into an orange squash bottle, which makes his van smell like a urinal on wheels.
The plot is well crafted, with only the occasional leap of faith required of the reader. Many intriguing but largely believable characters inhabit these pages, of whom some appear, only to entirely disappear. The author also displays an extremely keen eye for detail, which I greatly admired. There are some good mysteries at the heart of the book that draw the reader forward. Tantalising questions are posed about whether or not murder has taken place, and there are some fine studies in the effects of stress on human behaviour. The three separate viewpoints are very interesting and work very well to provide a compelling narrative.
Handled by the right publisher, this deserves to become a bestseller. And, sadly, that is the case with the work of so many indie authors who languish in hope.

3 people found this helpful

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John Cowan

A quirky, intriguing, but very good reading

Reviewed in Canada on 2 September 2016

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This book is unusual, and it took me a couple of chapters to get into it. But once I did I was absorbed. The story is unusual but fascinating, and a very good read. I recommend it.

One person found this helpful

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Johnp

Plain and simple: I liked it!

Reviewed in Canada on 18 September 2016

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I rarely write a review but I felt this deserved a review. It is different, intriguing, amusing, serious. I was never sure how it was going to end. I really enjoyed it and look forward to other offerings by this author.

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IvyB

A Good Read

Reviewed in Canada on 2 September 2016

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I enjoyed this book very much. The characters are well developed and the plot interesting. The humour added to the interest. Will read the author' s next book.

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E. I. HOOD

KARMA

Reviewed in the United States on 1 March 2016

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If I were an English teacher recording a letter grade for an essay, this book would be a B+. The language is flowing and paints great pictures.

The problem for me as the reader of a story is that I did not,at first, appreciate the pictures being drawn. I found myself not being able to empathize with two of the three main characters. Judgment often gets in the way of understanding. When I removed the "beam" in my eye I could better appreciate the "mote"s in theirs. That's when I started to value this author and his book.

The characters all have secrets (some of which are shared directly and some discerned by others indirectly.) Those with secrets sometimes do not want to know others secrets . To quote the book "We didn’t speak explicitly about what had changed that evening, although when we talked months later about it we each had our own metaphors. “I felt like we were stunt actors shattering a glass door,” I said. Thea said, “For me it was as if we were bungy jumping”. Hmm, perhaps. On reflection I think we invented those metaphors, but we both knew that we'd crossed into an unfamiliar land."

In my opinion, this is not a "take to the beach" read. I could not skim the story or I missed out on clues I would need later on. I am very glad I invested my time with this story and author. The book does not have a "and they lived happily ever after" ending but left me thinking and hoping for the future.

2 people found this helpful

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LOL

What’s inside the human heart?

Reviewed in the United States on 8 January 2016

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LOVED this book. It's my humble opinion the author has a best seller here. It sort of reminded me of "Gone Girl." The writing is brilliant in both books, but this story is so much better and more satisfying than the pointless mishmash that is "Gone Girl."

A fascinating tale I couldn’t put down. Told from three very unique points of view. Two deaths. Murders? Or accidents? It depends on who’s talking. An intriguing riddle that keeps you rooting first for one, then another, and yet another. Others have summarized, so I won’t do so here. I highly recommend this wonderfully entertaining puzzle.

4 people found this helpful

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Helena Ameisen

A fast paced descent from middle-class mediocrity into criminality and so much more.

Reviewed in the United States on 20 January 2016

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Another fabulous, cleverly-written novel by Stuart Campbell. I was engaged from start to finish, relishing the descent of ordinary people into the seamier side of life that slips beyond their control into unimagined complications and implications with surprising consequences. A riveting whodunit, told from three perspectives, Campbell has won me over once again with his intrigue and dark humour and beautifully wrought descriptions of quirky characters, an English university town....and ah, that dress...."the muted sheen of the fabric, the harmony of magenta and charcoal grey, the way it hugged her body like a slinky second skin..."..."making love with the passion of twenty year olds and the knowledge of forty year olds."
There's something to delight everyone in this fast paced novel. I highly recommend it. Can't wait to see what he puts out next !

3 people found this helpful

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Ion

This book was recommended to me by a friend

Reviewed in the United States on 8 December 2016

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This book was recommended to me by a friend. I'm not an avid reader of fiction but thought I'd take this one on. From the start, I was engrossed and found it to be one of those "can't put it down" books. I put aside my morning swim routine for a couple of days to keep up with the action in the book!
There are twists and turns and occasional laughs. The dialogue between the characters was often beautifully scripted. One encounter towards the end of the book between Fiona and Thea, two women sizing each other up, was nothing short of brilliant.
The plot was cleverly constructed and the reader is drip fed more and more information to put the whole picture together.
All in all, a great read.

2 people found this helpful

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Ann Massey (Perth, Australia)

Utterly Absorbing

Reviewed in the United States on 29 March 2015

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"An Englishman’s Guide to Infidelity" is a clever, witty novel about a foolhardy middleclass couple struggling to keep their heads above water who take a step into the dark side of life. The book is a page turner, but it is Campbell’s realistically, funny portrait of a man struggling to do the right thing by his wife and family which touched me. I haven’t read a better novel about the cloistered world of a university town since Tom Sharpe’s "Porterhouse Blue".

4 people found this helpful

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Pamandpete

Intriguing.

Reviewed in the United States on 24 September 2016

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An intriguing, entertaining read. I've nothing to add to all the other reviews which give this book 4 or 5 stars.

One person found this helpful

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