TWISTED PLAYGROUND

by Bryan Forbes

Mandarin 1994 paperback, fine In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Mystery

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Bryan Forbes CBE (born John Theobald Clarke) was an English film director, screenwriter, film producer, actor and novelist, described as a "Renaissance man" and "one of the most important figures in the British film industry".

He directed the film The Stepford Wives (1975) and wrote and directed several other critically acclaimed films, including Whistle Down the Wind (1961), Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), and King Rat (1965). He also scripted several films directed by others, such as The League of Gentlemen (1960), The Angry Silence (1960) and Only Two Can Play (1962).

Forbes wrote two volumes of autobiography and several successful novels, the last of which, The Soldier's Story, was published in 2012.He was a regular contributor to The Spectator magazine.

Reviews

[Richard Albiston · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first two thirds of the book, then after that it seemed like the author had written himself into a corner with his complex mystery. His solution was to throw in a complete tonal shift, "twists" in characters that were never set-up and then the kitchen sink for good measure. The main plot motivation, when it was revealed, is disgustingly hideous and the descriptions are nauseating. I stuck with it, figuring that the pay off really hinged on it. But it doesn't. The finale was rushed, underwhelming and disappointing due to what had come before. What I would call the major antagonist is left almost completely out of the epilogue leaving a huge hole in our sense of completion. Other characters are left behind and we feel angry at those loose threads too. But perhaps most annoying about the ending is that it is just a huge anticlimactic dud for what was set-up.

Overall, it just felt like I was reading a first draft, I didn't mind going back to the past then back into the present, but towards the end it didn't feel like these flashbacks were adding anything at all to the story. They were just padding. I can't really recommend the book despite its incredibly strong opening and well crafted mystery for the first 150 pages because the descent afterwards is far too steep to not be a waste of your time.

[David Lowther · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bryan Forbes was a fine actor, the writer of razor-sharp screenplays like Only Two Can Play and a superb director of such classics like Whistle Down the Wind. In later life he turned to novel writing and The Twisted Playground is his take on child pornography and abuse.

It's a book of two-thirds; the first is dull and introduces the reader to the plot and the characters. This is followed by an interesting and often exciting middle third as the hero (a thinly disguised Forbes?) seeks the truth with numerous twists but the end is frankly over melodramatic and hardly credible. Still, I shall read his last novel The Soldier's Story quite soon.

David Lowther. Author of The Blue Pencil (thebluepencil.co.uk)

[Simon Swift · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read from master storyteller.

[Anorhi · Rating 2 out of 5]

If this is Forbes at his best as stated on the back, I don't wanna see his worst.