Review of 'A Kiss for the Catcher'

John Hole’s third novel, out in May, asks a very big question – would it be possible for a young woman to so radically change her life, appearance and status that three years down the line she could seduce a man she once loved without ever being recognised by him? Bright, young Georgina Hart starts off this story of revenge, sex, fame, trapeze and local government as Personal Assistant to a powerful local authority boss, the older and married Michael Sutcliffe. Drawn into an affair with him, he subsequently is found guilty of financial corruption and implicates the innocent Georgina in his crime. Desperate and damaged, she only just manages to escape prosecution. Three years later, transformed into a sexy media star and a household name she stumbles across the man again and decides to take her revenge. Whether or not you can buy Hole’s idea that a woman could so transform herself and thereby take her revenge, there is no denying that he has produced a cracking read. At the end I felt as if I’d been hanging in space myself. At times, the book made me laugh out loud. It has a zest and panache which places it firmly among the best of contemporary writing. There are echoes of Ben Elton, possibly Nick Hornby and, yes maybe, even Martin Amis on a good day.