Two sets of best friends  two women two men  meet in the London of the sixties and for the next quarter of a century are bound together in life and death At the outset of this long novel one of the four the mysterious American tycoon James Hudson is launching a newspaper which his friend Richard Blake is editing The launch is crucial but so is the fact that the woman they both adored and that one of them married was killed some years before Murder ambition love and jealousy  its all here and the writings good as well This is one of those books in size and range where you can really get to know the characters and be engrossed in them