Contrary to poems and films, love isn't the only reason for marriage. Nor is it the strongest. Arranged marriage takes precedence. So does making the girl pregnant and doing the right thing. Indeed there's a list of reasons, not least lust -- the sap running in both the male and female.
The Break by Marian keyes
The thing about lust, the sex urge, is that in time it weakens when between the same partners. The time varies. Euphemistically, it's called the Seven Year Itch. On average, that is. It might be years shorter or longer. Then the mates may stray. The husband and/or wife take lovers.
The first one who finds out usually sues for divorce, their kids tossed back and forth between them. Single parents miss a partner and might marry somebody to fill the gap. All this is the theme of The Break by Irish author Marian Keyes. The story focuses on Amy, an Irish woman.
The writer follows her ups and downs for 560 pages, 123 chapters. The plot moves between Dublin and London, in the present and with flashbacks. At age 22 her first boyfriend abandons her and a daughter he sired. Four years later Hugh makes an honest woman of her. Two more daughters are foaled.
Amy is 44, a success in the public relations field, when Hugh drops the bomb. After 18 years he feels the itch. He wants a six-month break. To see what's out there. He still loves his family, but a man must do what a man must do.
After he leaves, to Southeast Asia among other places, Amy realises that she has the itch as well and takes up with a married man. When Hugh returns and admits to his own infidelity, they divorce yet accept a relationship as friends. A daughter becomes pregnant.
This leads to the question of why doesn't Ireland allow abortions. Its women have them, but why must they go abroad to lands allowing them?
While Keyes isn't above using cuss words, it's only a fraction of the times novelist Martina Coles does. My standard complaint applies: overwriting by up to 200 pages. Unlike other Ireland-set stories The Break has no violence. There is only the ire of the pro-lifers.
Belated justice
The Sleeping Beauty Killer by Mary Clark and Alafair Nurke
Felons, male and female behind bars, invariably proclaim their innocence. "It's a bum rap". "I was framed". "The judge was prejudiced". Etc. But if they were convicted by a jury of their peers under the US justice system, when they say, it's off to the monkey house.
Nevertheless, some didn't do it. The authorities are in no mood to re-open closed cases. Doing so might well expose their investigations hadn't been as through as they ought to have been. Perhaps the DNA doesn't match. Or a key witness belatedly changes his story.
Crime novelists usually take the tack that the convict is on Death Row and about to be executed. Can his champion deliver the evidence to exonerate him before the execution? "It's a race against time". In The Sleeping Beauty Killer, Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke eschew this cliché.
In the Big Apple, Casey Carter is tried and found guilty of murdering her mega-rich philanthropist fiancé Hunter Releigh. According to the state's leading witness, swearing that Hunter intended to ditch Casey for her, jealousy was the motive. The verdict is manslaughter: 15 years.
As Casey does her time, friends and relations drop away, not believing her protestations of innocence. Not even her parents. The only one on her side is her cousin (more like a sister) Angela. Casey contacts a television show to help clear her name. Enter Laurie Moran and her team.
They proceed to review the case with a fine-tooth comb. Not only do they find Casey innocent, but finger the culprit.
To their credit, the co-authors present the interesting story in full in 301 pages with no padding. All too often their colleagues throw everything in that comes to mind aiming to top 400 pages. The blurb asserted that they have millions of fans.
The Sleeping Beauty Killer is book 37. It will keep you guessing until the penultimate chapter.
