Children Of Eve.

Children Of Eve By Deidre Purcell.

Five o' clock one April morning. The phone rings in Arabella Moraghan's cramped Dublin bedsitter. The call, from Arizona, is one she thought she'd never get: a message from the mother who abandoned her and her two siblings nearly forty years ago in Dublin's Botanic Gardens. They had thought Eve was dead; but she is far from dead. And she wants to see her children.

In a matter of hours, Arabella's on a plane with her sister Willow - younger, more successful, more brittle - while back in Dublin the search is on for their dropout, homeless brother, Rowan. The women are met at Phoenix Airport by Arabella's phone messenger. The enigmatic Dale Genscher seems to lead a double life outside Robina Meadows, the trailer park where he and a diverse group live alongside Eve.

Is it too late to be forgiven by her three children? That is the question only they can answer as they and their mother embark on an action-packed, emotional roller-coaster ride along with Dale and the motley of Robina Meadows. After it, everyone's life will have changed beyond recognition.

.... from the inner, front cover.

A day later, and I'm still not too sure what I thought about this book which started very slowly, seemed to gain some momentum and then fizzled out. ' Action-packed and an emotional roller-coaster ride '? In places, perhaps - but not as an overall description.

On the whole the characters were badly written, somehow lacking in passion, somewhat contrived and I don't know if it was because there were quite a lot of them but the author seemed to use as many stereotypes as was possible. Whilst the plot seemed to be full of inconsistencies and, even allowing for poetic licence, riddled with inaccuracies that didn't ring true. Also the language used was, at times, very baffling and had me wondering exactly what was meant - ' I turned myself inside out apologising for taking him all he way back to the airport so soon, but he batted me away until I copped myself on and got back into my shell ' is one such example.

All in all, a very interesting idea that could have explored so many issues and yet largely failed to do so - I was quite disappointed by Children Of Eve and yet, all that said, there was still something about the book that was enjoyable.