Danger of first impressions

Press, 14 March 1987, Page 23

Danger of first impressions

Death by Analysis. By Gillian Slovo. The Women’s Press, 1986. 154 pp. $19.99 (paperback). (Reviewed by Ken Strongman) A female writer, The Women’s Press, a crime centred on psychoanalysis, the word "feeling” appearing in the first line, and a hint of soul-searching by page 2. Surely, one can be forgiven for being provoked 'Mnto some prejudices, probably so deep-seated as to be impervious to change. Which is yet another example of the danger of first impressions. "Death by Analysis” is well-written, reasonably intricate, and in Kate Beier has as good a modern female private eye as one could wish. The setting is provided by the cosmopolitan and rapidly changing world of North-East London and the crime involves the death, perhaps the murder, of an avant-garde, group-grope, moneymaking psychotherapist. The action moves from the rich and pretentious, to the equally unthinking philosophies of the street-kids, through to the burning zeal of the Left-winger bred to live in the smoke.

So, “Death by Analysis” is not the latest version of lesbian, vegetarian, born-again, hippyocracy. It is an interesting crime story in a modern setting, with plausible characters, a competent detective, and not too much probing of souls.