Review written for ClubReading.com by Linda
Guy is a respected English Judge. And he is leaving his wife of 40 years for a woman 30 years his junior. And the mistress happens to be a lawyer. What sounds like a soap opera really is an examination of how people react to a crisis.
Guy’s wife of 40 years, Laura, reacts badly to the news that Guy is leaving her. But she determines to go on by making one of her sons (and Guy’s son, too) do all the work for her. Simon, the chosen son, is a lawyer, and Laura leaves all the dirty work to him. When he advises her to accept an offer for the house, in typical lawyer language, she flies into a rage. How dare he use that formal tone with her, even in a letter. And she decides she simply isn’t going to leave the house, and Simon can just figure out how she can stay.
Carrie, Simon’s wife, watches Laura manipulate Simon into doing all of the work of the divorce, even though it’s not his divorce. But Carrie is afraid it will be, even though they have three teenage children. And the children, who aren’t directly affected, are impacted because their parents are in such turmoil. When one son has an emotional crisis and runs to his grandfather rather than his parents, and one daughter talks candidly with Simon about the effect the situation is having on the house, Simon realizes he must pick between his mother and his family.
There are several other interesting characters, including the mistress, Merrion, and the other son, Alan. I wish both of those characters had been more thoroughly developed, but most of all I wish Alan’s significant other, Charlie, had been better developed. Charlie comes in as Alan’s knight in shining armor, but readers can’t see why, because Charlie isn’t developed at all. We just know that he gives Alan the strength to do what he must do, and, when necessary, does it for him.
This is a wonderful book, full of characters who are extremely interesting. While the plot is not a fast-paced turn pager, the characters more than make up for it. In fact, I was so obsessed with how the characters dealt with the situation that I read the book very quickly. The characters, who aren’t perfect and know it, are wonderful, and the situation is unique enough to be intriguing.