Customer Reviews

Cold Snap

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This is the first novel I have read by Francis King and it was an easy page turner as the story effortlessly evolved. King is obviously a prolific novelist as this is his 50th book.
The blurb written by Arcadia at the back of the novel gives most emphasis to Michael the gay Fellow, of predictably, an Oxford College. This is misleading as the central plot revolves around Christine an undergraduate and her affair with Thomas, a German Prisoner of War. Perhaps Arcadia had eyes on the pink readership when in the blurb it states "Soon Michael has become profoundly attached to Klaus...". Certainly not a principal theme of this novel!
The bulk of the book is set in 1947 Oxford, King writes with a clear style and his characters are very credible and interesting. The mood between the English and the German POW's is extremely well written and often it felt like reading a work of non-fiction as to the different way the various characters reacted to Christine's relationship with Thomas. The second and third parts of the book set in 1950 and 1983 were less interesting and something of a letdown after the build up of the tension in the first part. Christine's visit to see her father near the end of the first part of the book was also somewhat clumsy and a little implausible.