Hotbed
by Portia Da Costa

Book Review by Ashley Lister

I have to be honest and say I've never really taken to the idea of village life. I'm happiest with twenty-four hour shopping facilities, electricity and neighbours that don't look like they've stepped from the set of Deliverance. Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against people from villages – what they do with their sheep is their own business. I simply prefer the company of people who don't dismiss me as an untrustworthy "townie" simply because I have access to modern technology such as a mobile phone, a vehicle that is not a tractor and deodorant.

That said, I shall be phoning an estate agent tomorrow to see if there are any properties currently available in Portia Da Costa's skilfully realised village of Redwych. I suppose, technically, Redwych isn't really a village. It's more accurately described as a small university town but we all know that "university town" is simply a euphemism for a village with a big school and a train station. And there is a village-like conservatism to the exterior of Redwych that conceals its seething underbelly of corruption and vice. Redwych is only a slow train ride from London and is the background to Portia Da Costa's recently republished title: Hotbed.

As anyone familiar with Portia Da Costa's writing will anticipate, Hotbed is a passionate tale that twists and turns like a hyperactive anaconda with St Vitus Dance. Natalie, the story's journalist heroine, takes the slow train from London to visit her half-sister in Redwych and dig a little dirt on the reclusive Whitelaw Daumery. It's been a while since Natalie escaped from the city to Redwych and she soon discovers that a lot of things have changed since she was last there.

One of the main changes is the presence of the divine transvestite: Stella Fontayne. Stella rules Redwych with an iron fist (an iron fist with sculpted, scarlet nails) and a weakness only for life's kinkiest pleasures. Controlling the parochial media, controlling Natalie's half-sister, and owning the local cabaret club (Fontayne's) Stella manipulates the characters in Redwych like a puppeteer tugging on the strings of a collection of marionettes.

And this is all done with some intensely hot and erotic scenes of masked S&M.

Above anything else, Hotbed is a story of conflicting dualities. The male/female dichotomy at the heart of Stella's cruelly likeable character; Natalie's love and loathing for her half-sister; the conservatism and corruption that epitomises Redwych; and the need for exposure that governs some characters balanced against the fear of exposure that controls others.

Ashley Lister
October 2007

Hotbed by Portia Da Costa
(Virgin Black Lace; October 30, 2007; ISBN-10: 0352341505)
Available at:  Amazon.com  / Amazon UK

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© 2007 Ashley Lister. All rights reserved.


About the Author: Ashley Lister is a UK author responsible for more than two-dozen erotic novels written under a variety of pseudonyms.His most recent work, Swingers: True Confessions from Today's Modern Swinging Scene (Virgin Books; ISBN: 0753511355), a non-fiction book recounting the exploits of UK swingers, is his first title published under his own name.
Ashley’s non-fiction has appeared in a variety of magazines, including Forum, Chapter & Verse and The International Journal of Erotica. Nexus, Chimera and Silver Moon have published his full-length fiction, with shorter stories appearing in anthologies edited by Maxim Jakubowski, Rachel Kramer Bussel and Mitzi Szereto. He is very proud to be a regular contributor to ERWA.
Websites: www.ashleylister.co.uk / ashleylister.blogspot.com

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