How do I distil the 40,000 words of The Carpetbagger into a few snappy tag lines? Moreover, how to do so, without revealing the plot, or at least too much of the plot? It is a difficult undertaking, but let's try.
An unnamed narrator moves from Durham to London and then to Paris. It’s a travelogue, then? Erm, no, but there is travel involved.
There is a lot of crime: the stealing kind of crime. Betrayal and unkindness, too. Also plotting; socialism, and what one might call anti-monarchism. Perhaps not republicanism, though. But who can tell what these characters are thinking, beyond self-interest? A definite element of self-preservation prevails.
Does The Carpetbagger's plot revolve around all that? Yes, indeed, it does. All that and more! But the other things are better left for the reader to discover.
As the tagline says, Read it. Feel it. Be there.
