There is a 'grand guignol' quality about Harry Doing Good which may suprise and delight.

'Do-gooders', says Harry Eckington, 'do better'. And as he sets off for a holiday in Snowdonia with his oddly assorted group of young friends rescued from the youth club and its supposedly homosexual leader, all seems set fair for a healthy, invigorating, uplifting week in the mountains, in spite of their handicaps. There is Cheryl's withered hand, for instance; and the jagged red blotch across Ann's throat; and there are Simon's epileptic turns. Peter suffers from a frustrating home atmosphere and Linda from the memory of an assault when she was twelve years old. As for Harry himself, Linda has a suspicion of what his trouble might be.

But, as they leave for Snowdonia, all are united in their deep beliefs, in their loyalty to each other, and in their admiration for the selfless quality of Harry's leadership. And all might have been well but for a group of psychopaths, bent on their criminal plans, who arrived on the remote plateau a few hours before the friends.

The confrontation leads inexorably to violence, rape and murder. And yet the horror on the mountain plateau is not the climax of this novel, for it is in the aftermath that the real tragedy unfolds and the pretentions are finally stripped from the survivors.

Books by W H Canaway