Product Description

One night in 1986 an abandoned baby girl is found in a cupboard at Heathrow airport. A year earlier Martha, Clio and Jocasta had met by chance, at the start of a backpacking adventure: they travelled together briefly and then went their own ways, swearing to meet again when they return home. But it would be a long time until they met again: not until Kate, the foundling, is a teenager, and all three are leading successful lives. Martha is a single, highly paid lawyer, Clio a doctor, locked in an unhappy marriage, and Jocasta a reporter, in love with a charming commitment-phobe. Which of them is Kate's mother? Why was she desperate enough to do such a thing, and how did she survive it?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31604 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-10
• Binding: Paperback
• 736 pages

The Daily Mail
'Vincenzi...is generous in giving her readers exactly what they have come to expect and enjoy'

The Express
'...like a glass of champagne: bubbly, moreish and you don't want it to end.'

The Daily Mail
'...it's high-class, well-structured, with enough juicy sub-plots and interesting minor characters to keep you gripped through many a chilly evening'

Customer Reviews

A Right Riveting Read!
This was my first Penny Vincenzi book and it certainly won't be my last. I was a bit worried that the politics side of it would be too heavy going for me (not being very knowledgeable in this department), but she actually made it easy to understand the goings on within 'The House', and actually quite enjoyable.
Although it was quite easy to work out who the parents of Kate were going to be, it was a good storyline and really well written.
Definitely recommended and my next job is to read the reviews to determine my next Penny Vincenzi book!

Fairly predictable but still a good read
The story revolves around three traveling students who become good friends and happen to quite unrealistically meet up later on in life. One of them abandons a baby at the airport after their travels when they were young and the reader is not told until later on in the book which one it is. Even though there are various points in each characters story to make you think it could be them, I felt it was quite obvious who it was from quite early on. I also guessed other twists in the story before they happened but I won't give too much away by saying what they were.
I still quite enjoyed the story but it is nothing out of the ordinary.

Thinking of abandoning reading it!
I have read all Penny Vincenzi's previous books and have been 'saving up' this one as a special treat! I'm about 100 pages in and, although I have only ever abandoned reading two other books in my life, I'm seriously wondering whether to waste any more of my time on this one. I am fed up of reading about her personal views of the terrible state of the NHS and the government - I'm not the biggest fan of either but really don't want it constantly being rammed down my throat when I'm trying to escape from the real world by reading a novel.

Really disappointed by this one - hope she returns to her usual form for the next one!