Bookends: Not filthy enough

The Pursued (Penguin, £12.99) is a lost crime thriller by C. S. Forester, the author of the Hornblower novels. It was written in 1935, rediscovered in 2003 and is now published for the first time.

Marjorie, a suburban wife and mother, comes home after a ‘jaunt’ in ‘town’ to find her sister dead in the kitchen on page four It is said to be suicide, but we have doubts.

Towards the end of the book, Forester summarises the action: ‘It was a filthy business, a tale of lust and murder and revenge, unredeemed by any of the nobler qualities of mankind.’ Not a bad précis, though anyone who reads The Pursued hoping to have their jaded 21st-century palate tickled is likely to be disappointed. Veils aplenty are drawn over the actual business of lust, and what murder there is in the book is accomplished with a thud offstage.

Penguin accompanied the release with a note saying that in terms of explicitness The Pursued was ‘years ahead of its time’, but in fact there is more murder and lust in Zola or Dostoevsky.