Nobody's Fault

"Nobody's Fault" first came out in 1990. It is a not-too thinly disguised novel about the Lord Lucan case -- the British aristo who inadvertently murdered his son's nanny, whom he had mistaken for his estranged wife, his real intended victim. My late partner and I always spent our winter and spring holidays in London, and as "Nobody's Fault" was banned there (or any rate never available there) we had to schlep half a dozen copies across the pond for friends. The fictitious Amanda, Countess of Warrington is far more more alluring by all accounts than the woman who inspired her. A middle class girl with a troubled past, Amanda is never accepted by her husbands circle of friends, all of whom, like him, are professional gamblers. Her struggles to fit in amid her husband's downward spiral of gambling addiction and ultimate bankruptcy are sensitively and urgently portrayed by the late Nancy Holmes, a former model and journalist who, like Dominic Dunne, chronicled the lives of the privileged. (Dunne provides the blurb praising the book; if you like his novels, you will love this.) Holmes brilliantly captures the England of the 70's, the characters are beautifully drawn, especially Amanda and her lover John Latimer, a mysterious, wealthy Polish émigré, and the book is really a treat for those seeking escape in a novel based on a true crime.