cover image Tell Mrs. Poole I'm Sorry

Tell Mrs. Poole I'm Sorry

Kathleen Rowntree. St. Martin's Press, $23.95 (411pp) ISBN 978-0-312-11882-2

Contemporary England is the setting for Rowntree's (The Directrix) pleasant addition to the girlfriends-through-thick-and-thin theme. Clinical psychologist Liz Stockdale, the patrician beauty with class guilt, suspects that her 18-year-old daughter is romantically involved with a married teacher; she hesitates to confide in her too-perfect husband because of his weakened heart. So, fearful that history may be repeating itself (Liz had a youthful affair with an idealized piano teacher), she calls for help on longtime pals Nell (brittle and brilliant) and Chrissy (vivacious earth-mother)--just as the three have done since meeting in grammar school. This time, however, one of the two has a far more distressing crisis, as well as a secret that could shatter their triumvirate forever. Periodic flashbacks trace the threesome's history and nicely explain their characters, and Rowntree deftly, if predictably, captures the magic and the trauma of childhood and ``best friends,'' along with the dangerous naivete of the young about love. (Feb.)