Ease

In this captivating first novel, British author Gale inhabits the mind and spirit of 39-year-old Domina Tey, popular playwright and longtime mistress of literary critic Randy Herskewitz. Yearning to resolve her problem of whether to become pregnant with Randy's child, Domina impulsively leaves her lover and retreats to a bedsitter in seedy Bayswater. The other tenants include Penny Havers, an actress manquee turned prostitute, Frenchman Thierry Kalbach, who sleeps with a different boy each night, and fragile young Quintus Harding, a disciple of Greek Orthodox Brother Jerome. Domina's empathic understanding and easy charm bring her into quick intimacy with these three. She uses her influence to wangle an audition for Penny, and goes with Thierry to an orgiastic sauna, where he becomes involved with a man who turns out to have murderous intentions. It is Quintus who affects Domina most deeply, however. He takes her to his church, where she recognizes the true identity of his adored Brother Jerome; thereafter, events spiral down in tragedy. The action, however fast paced and convincing, is secondary to the richness and vitality of the characterization, the authenticity of setting and dialogue, in a novel that pleads to be read at a single sitting. (November 20)