This is the dinner party from hell. The hostess is in the throes of a nervous breakdown, the main course is ruined, the guests are unpleasant and then, just to finish it off, her old lover arrives!

This is a rollercoaster of a story. Franca, the hostess, should never have married Andrew! However, she comes from a dreadful and unstable family background and Andrew, who has become very rich, provides stability and security. The dinner party is to celebrate a business deal so there’s Evan, his business partner, and the deal involves an elderly critic called Gerald so he’s there as well. There’s also a nasty cat and the imminent arrival of the old friend, Harry, to cope with.

The story of the dinner party is mixed up with Franca’s past life which is being recounted to Stella who is a therapist. You can tell that something bad happened!

Actually, there are a lot of bad things. The planned main course of rabbit has gone off in the broken fridge, Andrew turns out bad, Franca has a knife and fantasises about killing almost anyone, everyone is getting drunk, Gerald is totally boring and pompous and Franca is losing her mind.

That’s it really but the pace is unrelenting and you sense the increasing pressure on Franca and on her mental state and the events which have caused her to be like this. There’s a lot of blood and a cathartic crisis!

As a description of someone cracking up, the novel is entirely authentic, even down to the events which might have redeemed the evening but never quite work. You have to keep reading! Also, a lot of people will have thrown dinner parties which went off the rails for whatever reason, so there’s lots of detail to identify with – even down to the bothersome cat!

It’s well worth a read, but don’t start it if you’re feeling a bit stressed and there’s a lot of cooking to do this weekend!