Tangerine by Christine Mangan (Harper Collins) is not about fruit. Beautifully written, it’s set shortly after World War II in Tangier and begins with newly-married Alice, an English woman a few years out of college, arriving in Morocco with her husband. He apparently has a secret job with the British government which has sent him to the troubled colony. He spends a whole lot more money than he makes, hence his attraction to Alice who has a trust fund from her deceased parents.
While her husband works and hits the bars afterwards, Alice is miserably alone, practically imprisoned in their apartment in the foreign section of Tangier, afraid to go out in the foreign city. Her former college roommate, Lucy, shows up at the door. Instead of seeing Lucy as a wonderful distraction from her loneliness, we immediately sense Alice’s unease. Unlike Alice, Lucy is aggressive, inviting herself in and acting as if they are still close friends. Soon Lucy goes wandering the streets and bazaars of bustling Tangier, making contacts with locals.
Mangan delicately weaves in the back story of how the girls met in college as assigned roommates. Alice had been sent by her Aunt from England to Vermont to get her far away from the tragic death of her parents. The upper crust Brit at first gets along splendidly with the middle-class American, Lucy, daughter of a garage owner and on scholarship. Lucy claims that she too has lost her parents and the girls mesh like twins.
When a young man enters the picture the women’s relationship suffers. Jealousy and competition arise. Then we have the “incident” that Mangan alludes to for the rest of the book. She gradually unpeels the layers of the onion, and we learn the horror of the so-called “accident.” As she does so our opinion of one of the women deteriorates.
There follows an affair, and a murder. Warning: the ending may not please all readers, a la Gone Girl. I wouldn’t call Tangerine a page turner. The pace can be a bit slow. Nevertheless, Mangan writes lovely sentences which alone make this book worthwhile. A good A-.
Steve E Clark as seen in the New York Times is Author of Justice Is for the Lonely and Justice Is for the Deserving, Kristen Kerry Novels Of Suspense. You can purchase his books via SteveClarkAuthor.com/BuyBook or request it at your local book store. Want to know more about Steve Clark, read more reviews or speak directly with Steve? Learn more about Steve at SteveClarkAuthor.com
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