Who She Was by Tony Parsons
Published by Penguin, 2024

I was encouraged to read this after reading an article in a London newspaper which described it as a Cornish thriller based on the story of the Mermaid of Zennor. So far so good, and the article went on to say it’s set in the fictionalised town of St Jude’s which the journalist claims is or is modelled on St Mawes.

It isn’t. He makes further inaccurate comparisons and his references such as the “hard, honest lives” of the St Jude’s townsfolk were so cliched I was almost put off reading the book itself.

Dear Reader, I persevered but the village was nothing like St Mawes, there were few similarities with the Mermaid of Zennor and too many stereotypes – crooked police officers, celebrity chefs, emmets (although, apparently, locals refer to visitors as ‘surfers’) an unrealistic attempt to cover up a murder, the sudden reappearance of a previously unmentioned daughter and a femme fatale who few of the men can resist, despite or because of her dubious morals.

It was almost as though the author had put a load of plots and characters into a hat and drawn them out at random in the hope they’d make a good story. Not for me I’m afraid.