DANGEROUS TO KNOW

The author adds domestic abuse to her chronicles of British middle-class society (A Small Deceit, etc.) as she contemplates Hermione Brown, a chronically frightened mouse married to Walter—a pompous, penny-pinching monster ruined by his own brutal childhood. Their two grown daughters have escaped the loveless household in Merbury village in record time, and Hermione is beginning to silently rebel, taking on two cleaning jobs without Walter's knowledge, thankful for the increasing frequency of his late nights. Walter's life has been changing, too, as he finds other outlets for his savagery. He's not finished with Hermione, though, and a last violent confrontation finds Walter in the headlines and Hermione in a fight for her future. Repetitive at times and a bit too leisurely in pace, but filled with quiet menace and sharply observed characters: one of veteran Yorke's better efforts.