Desire and Ambition.

When Leah answers a job ad for a writer's assistant, she sets in motion a voyage of discovery through France, Greece and the author's past.

Told from Leah's perspective as well as that of her employer, has-been author Michael Young, 'Voyeur' shifts from the contemporary France of arty middle-class ex-pats to swinging sixties London and the Greek Junta.

Reece skilfully evokes time and place with a captivating atmosphere, and holds the reader in suspense.

The book is drowning in italics, denoting film/song/book titles (fair enough); internal dialogue, imagined dialogue, emphasis of dialogue, tube announcements (irritating and obtrusive); and foreign language either as dialogue or as words/phrases used in English ('othering' the non-English). A pity.

A page-turning summer read.

My thanks to NetGalley and Headline for the ARC.

I thought this book had a very well defined sense of place.. I particularly enjoyed the world that the author created in France and in London and the research of time and place was excellent. It’s a well written and well structured book and it’s worth taking the time to read it.
My only criticism was that the characters are not particularly likeable but that is not necessarily a bad thing. It reminded me of of one of those 1960s beat movies where the characters are all slightly damaged and cynical.

In Voyeur by Francesca Reece Leah is a young British woman leading a fairly aimless existence in Paris ,casual jobs,bar hopping and teaching English. She finds an intriguing advert placed by an author looking for a research assistant and after a false start finds herself taken on by Michael,who she is surprised to recognise as a best-selling write,albeit with his best years behind him.
The job requires her to spend time at Michael's holiday retreat where she meets,and becomes involved with,his friends and family., the former on meeting Leah suspect an ulterior motive. Leah's job is to transcribe Michael's diaries and what they contain is the backbone of the story.

The Voyeur is beautifully written, in particular the word pictures of the various locations, from London,Paris and Marseilles to the coastal village of St Luc. The story was intriguing and there is much to think about. My only dislike was that most of the characters are quite unpleasant people and it's quite hard to sympathise with any of them,there are a few notable exceptions but mostly they're selfish,hedonistic and hard to care about. It also took a while for much to happen.
That aside it's a quality piece of writing and worth sticking with through the slightly pedestrian beginning.

This only really became interesting to me around 70% in. The frequent use of Italics interrupted the reading experience for me. I also found that the splices of sex and food descriptions felt out of place and disjointed. So overall it didn’t flow very well.

Additionally the characters felt a little flat and/or predictable and all unlikeable apart from one.