The Captain's Table, by Brian Thompson, tells the story of young heiress Mary Skillane, who is in love with a mad inventor, Kennett; but her father, Sir William Skillane, has promised her to a thoroughly bad scallywag, Robert Judd, who seeks her hand primarily to get his own hands on the stash of pearls (long ago stolen by Sir William) that form the basis of the Skillane fortune. Why, it's a scenario absolutely screaming for a fictionalized account, and the widow Bella Wallis is just the woman to write it, given her prior success as the author "Henry Ellis Margam." But Bella and her friends soon discover that scullduggery in fiction is far more congenial than the real thing.... I stumbled across this, the second novel in an apparent series, quite fortuitously, and I'm glad that I did. To some degree it is a light, humourous and somewhat fluffy Victorian pastiche, but unlike many such novels set during that period in England, here we find both frank talk about sex among unmarried people both straight and gay, and some very grimy and gritty descriptions of the impoverished underside of Victorian life. My one quibble is that some of the story takes place in Cornwall, my ancestral land, and its people are portrayed in a less than flattering light, but that's just my own bias. The prose is at times quite witty and at other times fittingly dark, and the characters are interesting and not always appealing. I enjoyed the story itself as well, although I still feel that Bella is a bit of a mystery - a positive thing in a series, I believe! I plan to read the first book in the series, The Widow's Secret, in the near future, and then to look for more stories about Bella, her paramour Westland and their accomplices. Recommended. ( )

The Captain’s Table is Brian Thompson’s second foray into Bella Wallis’ life and loves. The first, The Widow’s Secret, is both a portrait of the danger and adventure to be found in Victorian England and a representation of the struggles a writer faces when confronted with real life and a need to create.
Read the rest on BookGeeks:
http://www.bookgeeks.co.uk/2009/08/24/jennies-review-the-captains-table-by-brian... ( )