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Fantasy Fiction Humor Humor & Entertainment Literature & Fiction Science Fiction & FantasyHaving read all of the original Benson books and the sequels by Tom Holt, I think I am something of a Lucia-expert. Therefore, I can certainly feel the difference in style between the Benson books and this wonderful Holt pastiche, but I still love it. England is at war, as are Mapp and Lucia. The battle in Tilling goes to the one who gathers the most officers for their parties. Naturally, Queen Lucia leads the fray, but...
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Holt is ingenious in his attempts to cast himself back into the twisted mind of EF Benson. Throughout the book he nearly achieves the impossible, for alas no modern author could really be as perfect as Benson. Nevertheless this book (and TRIUMPHANT) are worthy successors to the original six and are not bad in their own right, though perhaps giving Georgie Pillson such prominence wasn't the best idea he had. LUCIA IN WARTIME...
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Though published before Holt's other highly satisfying sequel to Benson's sextet, "Lucia in Wartime" reads perfectly as the concluding volume. Best to read "Lucia Triumphant" right after the last Benson (or maybe a few weeks later, so the very slight shift in voice and rhythm isn't so apparent), and then this last. The final paragraph is just how that dazzling chronicle of entre-deux-guerres small-town England should end...
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Tom Holt has moved Lucia to the days of Winston Churchill and WWII. He wrote this sequel to the Lucia novels after E.F. Benson passed on, and I must say, he did an admirable job of catching the dialog exactly. You'd swear that Benson wrote this book. The plot is predictably Lucia, who seeks to gain local social prominence, this time amongst the officers who are heading off to war. Their staff of servants (cook especially)...
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