Book excerpt:
If you could see the future, would you want to? You can’t, of course. A life is lived forward. The present is a vantage point from which every moment in the past is inevitable and every moment in the future invisible. Most of those moments won’t be important but a handful will turn out to be pivotal, shattering even. And you never know which until it’s too late.
…
Chris couldn’t quite shake the sensation that there were cogs turning below the surface of the world. That events had been set in motion and were now continuing along inevitable paths that had been there all along and that however much he tried to reassure them both, he had no real control at all over what would happen next.
Just a brief synopsis. Better to go in without too many preconceptions because it not a traditional thriller...it's much more. There is a family dynamic that pushes the plot, a police investigation with a shrewd pair of investigators, a serial killer, and the creepy supernatural vibe.
Kate Shaw along with her younger brother Chris and dedicated boyfriend Sam live an idyllic life in the English countryside. That is until a violent stranger does something unimaginable that changes all of their lives forever. Decades later, Kate and Sam are married with a child of their own and Kate still hasn't recovered from the trauma of what happened when she was younger. Kate’s life is suddenly upended again when she receives a phone call that her brother Chris has disappeared. What starts as a search for her brother search, quickly links to the traumatic event from their past.
The book begins with recent past attack on a young boy, then moves to present and the death of a wealthy professor, Alan Hobbes, along with the disappearance of the same boy as a young man who was attacked years prior. Moving further in the book (but decades into the past), we are introduced to two teenage brothers and an abusive father. The father action decides the personality traits and future of the two sons. One good, one bad. Each of these brothers will eventually put opposing “long games” into play where events will unfold over decades.
There is a moderately large cast of characters and events that are seemingly unconnected, however Alex North cleverly weaves everyone and every story line into a story that comes together in the end and in only approximately 350 pages. I admit I had to stop a couple of times and visualize a plot/character flow chart in my head, it’s complex.
To sum up; this is a brilliantly multi layered, character rich novel that deserves the dedicated attention it may take. I loved this brilliant book.
If you could see the future, would you want to? You can’t, of course. A life is lived forward. The present is a vantage point from which every moment in the past is inevitable and every moment in the future invisible. Most of those moments won’t be important but a handful will turn out to be pivotal, shattering even. And you never know which until it’s too late.
…
Chris couldn’t quite shake the sensation that there were cogs turning below the surface of the world. That events had been set in motion and were now continuing along inevitable paths that had been there all along and that however much he tried to reassure them both, he had no real control at all over what would happen next.
Just a brief synopsis. Better to go in without too many preconceptions because it not a traditional thriller...it's much more. There is a family dynamic that pushes the plot, a police investigation with a shrewd pair of investigators, a serial killer, and the creepy supernatural vibe.
Kate Shaw along with her younger brother Chris and dedicated boyfriend Sam live an idyllic life in the English countryside. That is until a violent stranger does something unimaginable that changes all of their lives forever. Decades later, Kate and Sam are married with a child of their own and Kate still hasn't recovered from the trauma of what happened when she was younger. Kate’s life is suddenly upended again when she receives a phone call that her brother Chris has disappeared. What starts as a search for her brother search, quickly links to the traumatic event from their past.
The book begins with recent past attack on a young boy, then moves to present and the death of a wealthy professor, Alan Hobbes, along with the disappearance of the same boy as a young man who was attacked years prior. Moving further in the book (but decades into the past), we are introduced to two teenage brothers and an abusive father. The father action decides the personality traits and future of the two sons. One good, one bad. Each of these brothers will eventually put opposing “long games” into play where events will unfold over decades.
There is a moderately large cast of characters and events that are seemingly unconnected, however Alex North cleverly weaves everyone and every story line into a story that comes together in the end and in only approximately 350 pages. I admit I had to stop a couple of times and visualize a plot/character flow chart in my head, it’s complex.
To sum up; this is a brilliantly multi layered, character rich novel that deserves the dedicated attention it may take. I loved this brilliant book.