Popular Fiction: Links, the first novel from Mary O'Conor, who is a practising sex therapist, the author of a book called Sexual Healing and wife of the concert pianist John O'Conor, ought to be a good read.
It has all the right ingredients: a good setting - the action takes place around an exclusive golf club called Redcliff, which is somewhere in Dublin but could be anywhere in the world, and a whole lot of interesting characters.
There's 50-year-old Marie, who is having wild sex at every available opportunity with Ciaran, the barman who is much younger than her; Madeleine, a Twin Towers widow, who's fresh back from New York and still in love with her old boyfriend Donal, the club captain. Donal is kept on a tight leash by his scheming wife Judith who harbours a terrible secret; Judith's ambition is to become the next lady captain of Redcliff, while poor handicap-less Catriona is miserable because she hates golf but her boyfriend is determined she becomes part of the Redcliff set.
Then there's Kay with her sad alcoholic husband Ed; Thomas, the gorgeous man who is in love with Madeleine but is having sexual difficulties and Linda who is desperately worried her husband is having an affair.
Plenty of scope for fun, if only the leading characters would come alive a little and stop acting like muppets. Madeleine and Donal never get beyond the stage of being cardboard cutouts, despite having sex, while Judith is just too horrible to bother with. There are some good scenes along the way - such as the family wedding where Marie finally tells her lecherous brother-in-law what she really thinks of him - but most of the action in Links is soap opera stuff. There are plenty of interesting ideas trying to come out in this book, but the rather predictable storylines just don't allow them to develop.
Links By Mary O'Conor, Townhouse, 312pp. €13.99
Orna Mulcahy is an Irish Times journalist
