Faulty Ground

Susan Barnes, resilient, reserved, and so terribly British, decides to take an extended trip to visit her cousin, Joanna, in Los Angeles. The ceiling of her London flat has fallen in, she has a writing deadline to meet (an introduction to yet another edition of Emma), so she flies to the sunshine and swimming pools, martinis and margaritas, of Los Angeles.

But beneath the charm and easy-going exteriors, Susan finds, against all expectations, a place of passion and guilt. At first she is dazzled by the Californian effusive geniality: it is only gradually, incident by incident, that she begins to see the full picture emerge. Amid the apparent beauty and superficiality, intense emotions can rise to the surface.