Unsettled Ground, Saint Maybe and The Appeal

 

It starts off at a cracking pace and doesn't let up. Although the story revolves around the fifty one year old twins Julius and Jeanie, it is the latter who is the central character as their meagre existence falls apart. Jeanie is strong, resilient, and far too independent for her own good, especially as they face losing even that poor livelihood at the bottom rung of society. Julius is portrayed as a boring, selfish brother seeking odd jobs where he can find them. I found all this quite depressing and only the momentum and prose kept me going. It felt so sad, disturbing and bleak. However there are heroes to be found as well as villains. The story turns on a revenge which I still cannot help but feel was highly improbable. I may be in the minority.

Here we are again.....in Baltimore of course. Well, close by anyway. The family are the Bedloes and the story concentrates on Ian, the second son of Doug and Bree. It's what happens to the first and his new wife that changes Ian's life for ever. It's Danny and Lucy whose early married life Ian watches at close hand. And there are Lucy's children from an earlier marriage.

The back cover is far too explicit in what happens next, and even mentions Ian's life twenty years on. But the book is not halfway through when Ian has to decide whether to cut college for a life he never imagined. It involves the Church of the Second Chance which eventually is all consuming. It was the religious aspects of the remainder of the book that I found disappointing. The family coping with Ian's new life is still fine and Tyler's trademark brilliant passages and dialogue are still there. There is a road trip Ian takes two thirds through that is one of the author's best ever. But overall, perhaps the least successful of all sixteen novels I have read so far.

I have never known a book like it. A collection of emails, reports, texts, articles and even phone messages, all needed to be reviewed by law students Femi and Charlotte for their boss, Roderick Tanner QC. Who is the murderer? I must have made nearly as many notes as they did. So a highly original format that had my head swimming at times. There is so much information to digest, too many facts and too many awful people. Top of that list is Isabel Beck, a needy, lonely, devious nurse whose many long emails can drive you mad.

I have to admit that this is not my kind of book, one that relentlessly follows fact by fact. It was an interesting concept but one that eventually becomes a bore. The final revelations were either much too predictable or just plain daft. So a clever idea but in the end a tedious format I was glad to put down. Thank goodness it was discarded by book club.