SOURCE: "Bloody Bayou," in The Times Literary Supplement, No. 4011, February 8, 1980, p. 146.

In the following favorable review, Salmans analyzes plot and characterization in Alexandra.

Moss-hung, hot and steamy, the bayou country of Louisiana is popular territory among mystery writers as a setting for sinister intrigues, dark secrets, unsolved murders. These are the basic ingredients of New Orleans writer Valerie Martin's second novel, Alexandra, but any resemblance that the book bears to conventional thrillers is purely superficial. A remarkably accomplished novelist, Martin has seamlessly woven the elements into a complex story about two women, a man and their curious triangular relationship.

The story is told by the man, Claude, a middle-aged bachelor who falls suddenly and willingly under the spell of Alexandra, or Alex, as she is called—a handsome, strong-willed young woman with the rather bizarre hobby of knife-throwing. At Alex's urging he resigns his dead-end job, leaves his...