Hello. I'm Catherine Weller and this is The Open Book.

This week's selection is The Sense of Paper by Taylor Holden.

Former journalist Charlie, aka Charlotte, Hudson witnessed the worst of the worst during her career. She filed stories from Lebanon, Northern Ireland, Libya, and Iraq during the first Gulf War. Where ever there was carnage, Charlie was there to report for "The London Times". Then one night in Kosovo, Charlie's role shifted from reporter and observer to victim. The Sense of Paper opens with that night, when Charlie joined the legions of women brutalized during the ethnic cleansing campaigns of Kosovo. It is a stark beginning, not at all lurid, and powerful. In some ways, Taylor Holden, herself a former war correspondent, lives up to the promise of those few paragraphs; in others she doesn't.

The book's cover notes that it is a novel of obsessions. Indeed there are several: Charlie's understandable and unresolved reactions to her past, her fascination with paper and the book she's writing, and the passion she and royal portrait artist Sir Alan Matheson feel for each other. Oh, and there's the intruigue surrounding the suicide of Sir Alan's daughter, Angela. That's a lot of obsession to fit into three hundred and sixty seven pages.

It goes like this: Charlie is in love with paper. It's a connection to her beloved dead grandfather, and an intriguing subject in its own right. While browsing an art supplies shop, Charlie bumps into Sir Alan Matheson, portraitist to the Queen. They talk, sparks fly and they're "working together" on a book about eighteenth century British watercolorist JMW Turner. What they're really working on together is getting together. But Charlie's post-traumatic stress disorder and Sir Alan's hidden past keep getting in the way of Charlie's trust.

The plot threads that work best in this book are the steamy romance between Charlie and Sir Alan and the mystery of his daughter's death. On their own those stories could be fine romantic and suspense writing. Instead, they're held back by so much to write about and so little time. Holden's characterization is a little wooden, the prose a tad turgid. The history of paper making and art also find their way into this book. Some may feel those passages are part of the baggage that gets in the way of a really good story. Others, like me, will wish for more paper and Turner, and fewer visits to country homes.

The Sense ofPaper is ambitious and not without merit. As Charlie closes in on discovering the truth behind Angela's suicide and finding a way to live with herself, you'll find the story flying. But you've got to be patient enough to reach that point.

You've been listening to The Open Book on KCPW. I'm Catherine Weller.

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