Hector and the Secrets of Love

Francois Lelord

Average Rating 7/10 (1 Review)

What is the secret formula for love? Hector, our intrepid psychiatrist, sets off on a new globe-trotting mission and this time he is looking for Love.

One of the world s largest pharmaceutical companies has employed him to track down their brilliant scientist, Professor Cormorant, who has disappeared abroad with the secret of a modern-day love potion. Leaving behind his troubled relationship with girlfriend Clara, Hector s adventure takes him to the Far East and into the arms of beautiful Vayla, forcing our hero to think deeply about what love really is/means.

In his follow-up to the multi-million-selling Hector and the Search for Happiness, acclaimed writer and psychiatrist, Francois Lelord, offers us a new fable filled with thoughtful insights into the very human desire to find and keep love.

About the Author:
Born in France, Francois Lelord studied and practised psychiatry in Paris, and was a consultant for companies interested in reducing stress for their employees. On a trip to Hong Kong in which he was questioning his personal and professional life, the Hector character popped into his mind. He wrote Hector and the Search for Happiness not knowing exactly what kind of book he was writing. Today he lives in Thailand.

'Hector and the Secrets of Love' follows our eponymous hero as he travels the world in search of a missing love potion. Written by a psychiatrist, as the plot unfolds this book examines the science and psychology of romance, making for a fascinating read.'

Review by Ben Macnair (300911) Rating (7/10)

Review by Ben Macnair
Rating 7/10
The novelist and psychiatrist Francois Lelord has returned to the life of his literary alter-ego Hector, in this, the follow up to the multi million selling Hector and the Search for Happiness which looks at the nature of love and happiness and does not really find the answer, but creates a vivid world of characterisation and events in the process.

The story does not pre-suppose a back knowledge of Hector’s Life, as it introduces him and his life right from the beginning of this second volume. Hector has many patients who come to see him with their ailments of life and love. He spends much of his time thinking about love, and trying to help other people’s love lives, that his own relationship is suffering.
Hector’s relationship with his girlfriend Clara is troubled, so when he is offered the chance (and a lot of money) to find a brilliant scientist, he sees it as a good opportunity to sort out his own hand. Life, as always has other plans.

In China, a pair of Pandas are making loving overtures to each other, and it is the news story of the week. However, Professor Cormorant has had his part to play in this turn of events, being the inventor of the love potion that has caused this turn of event, and he has tried it on himself as well, making him immensely attractive to a younger research scientist, and when he insists that Hector also tries the potion with one of the Professor’s female colleague, Hector agrees, believing that it may not work.

It does work, and they form a close attachment to each other, even though they speak different languages and only have a smattering of conversation with each other throughout the book.

Hector and the Professor though realise that other people are prepared to pay a high price for Professor Cormorant’s research papers and potions, believing that nature can always be helped when it comes to love.

Hector and the Professor go their separate ways, only contacting each other when it is necessary. This part of the novel feels more like a Spy Thriller than a novel. It is my only real complaint about the book, in that maybe it tries to fit too much in, and this has the effect of diluting the strengths of the novel in general.

Time and Hector’s absence has played their parts in Hector losing Clara to Gunter the very man who had employed him to find Professor Cormorant and his magic potion in the first place.

As the story goes on, Hector adds his own observations about the nature of life and love, and finds his own epiphany about the nature of love, and that the right answer to it is different for every individual and every couple.

In all, this is a fine read, the characters are well drawn, particularly Hector who is clearly much more at home in familiar surroundings, rather than as the adventurer he is required to be in this story.

The book also includes an extract from Hector Finds Time which is released next year.
Ben Macnair (30th September 2011)