BOOK REVIEW / In brief: Malina - Penny Perrick: Sinclair-Stevenson, pounds 14.99

Torrid and treacly by turns, this variation on Du Maurier's Rebecca is set in a Connemara landscape windswept with hot air. Of the two unfortunate wives in question, one is timid, English and dead; one is bold, Irish and worried. 'Your combative grey eyes make me fierce,' the English landlord tells our newly-married narrator. And how fierce would that be? Political turbulence from the 1880s to the Easter Rising of 1916 reflects and underpins the drama, which has moments of high entertainment if you don't let the cloying lilt get you down.