Helen, the protagonist of The Price of Love is living in London.
She seems to be trapped in a dead-end job, with no hope of doing very much, to be honest.
But that is where her story really, truly begins.
For her new found French lover, Jean-Paul, encourages her to leave London and her career (such as it is!) to go to Paris to spend Christmas there.
But then, from Jean-Paul's perspective, things start to go awry.
He is infuriated when Helen decides to take up a job as a cleaner and perhaps understandably enraged when she begins to have an affair with an attractive bad boy, Alexis.
Via the contacts of Alexis, Helen become au fait with the swinging scene of Paris and also the sister of Alexis, a so-called wild child, Malveen.
Then to add to the chaos (or le chaos as the French would put it) Jean-Paul dies without any real warning.
Marc, the adult son of Jean-Paul, does his best to offer his comfort to Helen.
Then, Malveen's marriage instantly takes a turn for the worst and Malveen is locked in a dungeon by her husband.
Malveen, not surprisingly, takes this marital decision by her husband rather badly (what with that and the horribly messy business with the nourriture pour chien) and manages to orchestrate her own escape from her espousal entrapment.
Unfortunately after she is able to effect her escape she murders the employer of Helen. (As if Helen's life is not already complicated enough!)
Marc becomes beside himself and Helen takes the sensible step of fleeing Paris (indeed, fleeing France its entirety) and returning to the relative sanity and safety of life with her family in Southwold, Suffolk.
But Marc is made of sterner stuff and he tracks her down to England. And if you want to know how it all plays out, the book will cost you £9.99, from Matador.
You will be enchanted by the witty, breathless writing style of Deanna Maclaren. This is her tenth book.
The book is also available from the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop which you will find on the right hand side of this site. Also whilst there, search for Deanna's other novels.
