From the acclaimed author of The Bones of You comes a haunting and heartbreaking new psychological thriller about a man thrust into the middle of a murder investigation, forced to confront the secrets of his ex-lover's past.
"I was fourteen when I fell in love with a goddess. . ."
So begins the testimony of Noah Calaway, an ex-lawyer with a sideline in armchair criminal psychology. Now living an aimless life in an inherited cottage in the English countryside, Noah is haunted by the memory of the beguiling young woman who left him at the altar sixteen years earlier. Then one day he receives a troubling phone call. April, the woman he once loved, lies in a coma, the victim of an apparent overdose--and the lead suspect in a brutal murder. Deep in his bones, Noah believes that April is innocent. Then again, he also believed they would spend the rest of their lives together.
While Noah searches for evidence that will clear April's name, a teenager named Ella begins to sift through the secrets of her own painful family history. The same age as April was when Noah first met her, Ella harbors a revelation that could be the key to solving the murder. As the two stories converge, there are shocking consequences when at last, the truth emerges.
Or so everyone believes. . .
Set in a borderland where the past casts its shadow on the present, with a time-shifting narrative that will mesmerize and surprise, The Beauty of the End is both a masterpiece of suspense and a powerful rumination on lost love.
"I was fourteen when I fell in love with a goddess. . ."
So begins the testimony of Noah Calaway, an ex-lawyer with a sideline in armchair criminal psychology. Now living an aimless life in an inherited cottage in the English countryside, Noah is haunted by the memory of the beguiling young woman who left him at the altar sixteen years earlier. Then one day he receives a troubling phone call. April, the woman he once loved, lies in a coma, the victim of an apparent overdose--and the lead suspect in a brutal murder. Deep in his bones, Noah believes that April is innocent. Then again, he also believed they would spend the rest of their lives together.
While Noah searches for evidence that will clear April's name, a teenager named Ella begins to sift through the secrets of her own painful family history. The same age as April was when Noah first met her, Ella harbors a revelation that could be the key to solving the murder. As the two stories converge, there are shocking consequences when at last, the truth emerges.
Or so everyone believes. . .
Set in a borderland where the past casts its shadow on the present, with a time-shifting narrative that will mesmerize and surprise, The Beauty of the End is both a masterpiece of suspense and a powerful rumination on lost love.
“Suddenly your whole life is like a car crash, no brakes, gaining momentum, piling up behind you. Your mistakes, missed opportunities, all the time you’ve wasted, a twisted, rusting heap of scrap metal that can’t be salvaged. Overwhelming you. Crushing you.”
The thing about thrillers is that they are supposed to be, well, thrilling. The Beauty of the End lacked many things but this had to be the most notable. It didn't thrill me, at all. In fact, I found it all rather boring.
Ok, ok, ok it wasn't all that bad. The writing itself was decent enough. I do think that Debbie Howells has a flair for world building. She created a strong sense of location in every scene, and I had no problem visualizing the settings. The issue here wasn't Howells writing it was her imagination.
The plot is the first big problem. Not enough happened, there was no pay off at the end, which for the genre is fairly essential, and the 'twists' were nowhere near good enough for me. I'll put it this way, what I wanted was Big Little Lies and what I got was Midsummer Murders. That is not necessarily a bad thing if Midsummer Murders is your kind of thing, but it is not mine.
The second big problem is the characters. Noah is a wet blanket of a man whose obsession with April is borderline pathetic. He lacks personality and is boring. April is a little more interesting but she is barely in it and she is always seen through Noah's eyes. She is a 'goddess', not a woman. Will is even more interesting, but not enough time is given to him. The character that works the most is Ella, and again there are not enough pages of her perspective to make it work. The issues with characterization can be seen clearest in the police detective who is a snivelling, smug, asshole of a man. His grim arrogance is so over the top it is like he walked off the stage of a pantomime and somehow ended up in a crime thriller.
The Beauty of the End very clearly didn't work for me. It isn't a disaster, it isn't the worse book I have ever read, it is just not interesting enough. I wanted, no needed, more from it.
The thing about thrillers is that they are supposed to be, well, thrilling. The Beauty of the End lacked many things but this had to be the most notable. It didn't thrill me, at all. In fact, I found it all rather boring.
Ok, ok, ok it wasn't all that bad. The writing itself was decent enough. I do think that Debbie Howells has a flair for world building. She created a strong sense of location in every scene, and I had no problem visualizing the settings. The issue here wasn't Howells writing it was her imagination.
The plot is the first big problem. Not enough happened, there was no pay off at the end, which for the genre is fairly essential, and the 'twists' were nowhere near good enough for me. I'll put it this way, what I wanted was Big Little Lies and what I got was Midsummer Murders. That is not necessarily a bad thing if Midsummer Murders is your kind of thing, but it is not mine.
The second big problem is the characters. Noah is a wet blanket of a man whose obsession with April is borderline pathetic. He lacks personality and is boring. April is a little more interesting but she is barely in it and she is always seen through Noah's eyes. She is a 'goddess', not a woman. Will is even more interesting, but not enough time is given to him. The character that works the most is Ella, and again there are not enough pages of her perspective to make it work. The issues with characterization can be seen clearest in the police detective who is a snivelling, smug, asshole of a man. His grim arrogance is so over the top it is like he walked off the stage of a pantomime and somehow ended up in a crime thriller.
The Beauty of the End very clearly didn't work for me. It isn't a disaster, it isn't the worse book I have ever read, it is just not interesting enough. I wanted, no needed, more from it.
2 stars
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