SOURCE: Tristram, Emma. “A Very Polite Refusal.” Times Literary Supplement, no. 5056 (25 February 2000): 21.

In the following review, Tristram asserts that Marrying the Mistress lacks both engaging dramatic elements and substantial characterizations.

The main impulse behind the construction of Marrying the Mistress seems to be one of refusal. Joanna Trollope likes to suggest important elements, then say no to them. This starts with the setting; Guy Stockdale is a judge, and in the opening chapter his case involves an abused teenage girl. Asked why she slept with her stepfather, she says: “He was like a god to me.” This speech is more extreme and unusual than anything the main characters say to each other; but having delivered it, the girl never appears again. She is only there to give Guy terms with which to ponder his feelings for his wife, Laura, whom he has decided to leave for Merrion, a...