Toby Flood's acting career is not going well (an understatement as the play he's in is near closing down) and he's still hung up on his estranged wife, who's planning to remarry as soon as their divorce is final. When the play he's in comes to her town and Jenny calls asking to see him, a slim sliver of hope is born. But all she wants is for Toby to check into a man who's been watching her retail store and giving her the creeps.
Thinking it will just be a matter of telling the man to go away, Toby does as Jenny asks, hoping for more time to convince her that their marriage can still work. Instead, he's drawn into a set of events that make conspiracy theorists look like preschoolers plotting a storybook. As Toby is drawn into the life of the man hanging outside his wife's shop, Denis, he can't figure out who the good guys are. Maybe there aren't any, and he's certainly not sure what place Denis holds in the scheme of things.
The convoluted plot of PLAY TO THE END will keep you engrossed, your mind weaving and twisting trying to determine which plot line will play out to give a clue to the ending. It's a very character-driven book, inhabited by people with foibles and frustrations that make them entertaining and endearing. A very enjoyable read!
Actor Toby Flood, formerly of big and small screen but now
seldom seen on either, arrives in Brighton with the other
cast members of the Joe Orton play Lodger in the
Throat. They have been on tour since September, but
hopes of a West End transfer have been abandoned and they
are all looking forward to the end of the run the following
Saturday.
Flood is visited that night by his estranged wife, Jenny,
now living with wealthy entrepreneur Roger Colborn. Jenny
runs a shop in the Lanes and is worried about a strange man
who is hanging around outside. Roger has dismissed her
concerns but Jenny persuades Toby, for old times' sake, to
do something. The next day Flood trails the man and
confronts him. Derek Oswin is an unemployed loner who
blames Roger Colborn for his father's death from cancer on
account of dangerous practices at the now-closed plastics
factory run by Roger and his late father, Sir Walter
Colborn. However, Oswin is a fan of Flood's and eventually
he agrees to lay off. Then, Colborn gets wind of Flood's
contact with Jenny and tries to buy him off, but Flood sees
only a longed-for opportunity to win Jenny back, and
presses for answers to a host of questions surrounding the
death of Sir Walter seven years earlier.
Before he fully understands the risks he is running, Flood
finds himself entangled in the mysterious -- and dangerous -
- relationship between the Oswins and the Colborns. The
prospects of him surviving until the close of the play
suddenly start to look far from good.
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