I’ve recently been reading Scarlett Thomas – “The End Of Mr Y” was our bookclub book in November last year and I snapped up the back catalogue on the strength of it. “Dead Clever” introduces Lily Pascale lecturer in Literary Theory specialising in Crime Fiction and reluctant amateur sleuth. “Write about what you know” is the standard injunction to the would-be novelist so it’s no surprise to find Scarlett Thomas is a Lecturer in Literary Theory specialising in Crime fiction. It’s a neat dodge if you can get away with it - There can never really be any question about the validity of the narrative voice. Another advantage of the day job is that anything that skirts on or near the edge of cliché can be passed off as playing with the conventions - Her colleague Fenn Baker with his PhD on “The Heroine in Romantic Literature” bears more than a passing resemblance to Heathcliff, and true to form their romance is frustrated by Fenn’s honour (A drunken indiscretion leaves a student pregnant and he does “the right thing”). The student lectures create the opportunity for some clever pastiches of genre fiction which suggest it’s deliberate.

The second novel “In Your Face” confirms this. It switches back to London and whilst it still “nods and winks to the camera” is probably (I haven’t read much Crime Fiction) more traditional. It leverages “Dead Clever” but doesn’t rely on it and the distance from the university creates more “literary space”. There are the occasional narcissistic lapses – Lily is nearly always described as stunning, a genius, brilliant, etc.. but then Philip Roth’s new novel is apparently about a New York Jewish Professor of Literature “turning” a stunningly attractive 30 year old lesbian literary scholar so fairs fair!

All in all, so far, I’d say I was a fan but not quite a fanatic. That said I have lined up “Seaside” for my next read so it probably depends on what your definition of fanatic is?