ANDREW GARVE – The Lester Affair. Harper & Row, US, hardcover, 1974. Published previously by Collins,UK, hardcover, 1974.

   Among Garve’s other interests is a keen one in boating and the sea, and this is one of his best novels dealing with that theme. James Lester, Britain’s Progressive party candidate, seems well on his way to becoming prime minister when a strange thing happens: A young woman, Shirley Holt, claims that she and Jim Lester met during a holiday; that they bathed nude together on a deserted beach; that she went aboard his boat to spend the night; and that during the night they had a sexual relationship.

   Well, all right, such things happen. And apparently no harm has been done. After all, at the time, and presently, Lester was single-a widower actually. But (and here comes the intriguing Garve puzzle) Lester himself not only denies that such a thing ever happened, he denies even knowing the woman.

   Needless to say, claims and counterclaims take over the election headlines. Why. Lester supporters wonder, would Jim tum his back on this woman? She is able to supply a very convincing account of that night, including details she seemingly would not have known otherwise, and the topaz ring she claims she lost on the boat is recovered from one of its drains. Still, Lester sticks to his story, and begins to lose his lead in the election polls.

   This complex mystery is told from a number of points of view of people investigating the incident. And, as is often the case with Garve’s stories, interest is sustained throughout without a single death or even the threat of death. The resolution is sure to surprise and satisfy the reader.

   Garve also displays his knowledge of the sea to good effect in The Megstone Plot (1957) and A Hero for Leanda (1959). Other equally fine adventures are The Cuckoo Line Affair (1953), which concerns a son’s fight to clear his father of a shameful accusation; Boomerang (1970), which is set in Australia; and The Case of Robert Quarry ( 1972), an excellent depiction of the eternal triangle.

         ———
   Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007.   Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.