[The Soul of Kindness is] a story that holds one's interest from first to last. Yet I found it disappointing, as if I'd just finished reading brilliant notes for a novel instead of the finished product. My mind was full of questions. It is the story of a (we are told) devastatingly beautiful and charming girl…. The real weakness of the book, it seems to me, lies in the fact that though the heroine is described again and again as exquisite and charming, the reader is not convinced. One can't see why even weak people would fall under the spell of what seems a transparently selfish character.

However, Miss Taylor couldn't write an inelegant sentence if she tried and her prose is a delight as always; there is a wonderful supporting cast and secondary plot, and the London backgrounds are all vivid enough to touch and smell.

Katherine...