The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene – 3 Stars (Rounded up)

[Hannah]

This is the story of a very conflicted man who finds himself being blackmailed, unable to leave his job and passed over for promotion, then riddled with guilt over what he has done and what has happened to other people in the community. Whilst interesting at times and having lots of potential, I felt the potential wasn’t quite fulfilled, and it did not have the pace and excitement that I would expect from a Graham Greene novel. Instead of sympathising with Scobie, I found him to be easily influenced and quite weak, and the book was actually quite depressing at times.