For the first 200 pages, Susan Ertz’s After Noon is an enjoyable, plausible story.
Then it becomes preposterous.
After Noon by Susan Ertz
A. L. Burt, 1926. 338 p. 1926 bestseller #9. My Grade: B-.
Charles Lester’s life had walked out on him in Italy, leaving behind a note, a check for a hundred pounds, and their twin baby daughters.
Almost 20 years later, a happily celibate Charles has paid the divorce costs, become a successful accountant, and is enjoying life with daughters Venetia and Caroline.
One evening a Mrs. Lydia Chalmers phones, having been told by one of his clients to look Charles up when she gets to England.
Charles extends appropriate courtesies.
Soon Lydia is a regular part of the Lesters’ lives.
Both daughters marry in haste, Venetia to accompany a soldier who’s posted to India and Caroline to assist a comrade in making war on capitalism.
With the girls gone, Charles and Lydia marry.
Tying the knot apparently shuts off the oxygen to Lydia’s brain.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, she convinces herself Charles regrets their marriage. To test him, she intends to leave him, hoping he’ll come after her.
Nothing in Lydia’s prior behavior prepares readers for such self-destructive stupidity.
Ertz rescues the marriage.
She can’t save the novel.
©2016 Linda Gorton Aragoni
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