Back to Reviews By Title - C

Cross the River to Home, Kaye Kelly
Black Swan
Reviewed by Sheila Forbes (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)

Here is another story set on the west coast of the South Island in the 1870s. An attractively presented book, it tells of the love between a young Englishman and a Chinese girl at a time when inter-racial marriage was decidedly taboo.

The tale begins with Fong Mai and her blind grandfather, Fong Hoy, making their way on foot to Charleston in search of Doctor Ainsley, who they hope will be able to remove the cataracts in the old man's eyes so that he can see again. On the way they are accosted by two rogues who, when they see the Chinese girl, are intent on rape.

Two other men are separately heading for the same destination: Ben Corbett, a returning traveller who once hoped to marry Poppy, the woman who is now the doctor's wife, and Henry Bramwell, Poppy's younger brother, newly arrived from England in search of his sister. Ben saves Mai from a fate worse than death and escorts her and Hoy to the doctor's house. Predictably, Henry and Mai fall in love almost as soon as they meet. However, the course of true love ... etc. Marriage between the two is declared impossible by many in the European community, and Mai has already been promised by her father to the brutal Yan Gar Chan.

Henry goes to work for Donald MacKinnon, a store owner in Stafford, and as travelling salesman he is able to visit Mai from time to time, much against MacKinnon's advice. When he falls out with MacKinnon he is helped by Ben to fund his own business, and becomes more determined than ever to rescue Mai from her vicious husband.

The plot has plenty of twists and turns, with blackmail, murder and domestic violence all rearing their ugly heads. What it does not have is a sense of reality. Somehow for me the characters never quite come to life, and although there is some originality in the plot there are also some very predictable situations. However, it is an easily read diversion for anyone not looking for more depth.