Gallery Books: 304 pages
eBook review copy; 304 pages
ISBN-13: 9781982100452
Man of the Year by Caroline Louise Walker is a recommended character driven psychological thriller.
Dr. Robert Hart has just been named Man of the Year in Sag Harbor, but that award may have been premature. His beautiful second wife, Elizabeth, is there to witness his acceptance speech, along with his son, Jonah, and Jonah's friend, Nick. But when Robert notices that Nick may be paying a bit too much attention to Elizabeth, and that she is responding, he is not thrilled when Elizabeth invites Nick to stay in their guest house for the summer. Robert needs to take matters into his own hands and get Nick out. One lie seems to lead to another and before long Robert is trying to cover his tracks.
The first part of Man of the Year is told exclusively through Robert's voice, which makes it challenging because the man is not a likeable or compelling character. His paranoia can be over-the-top. After a shocking event, the second part of the novel takes over. At this point other voices add to the narrative and make the totality a more fascinating and intricate web of details and lies. In the end, none of the characters are particularity likeable, but the complicated lies and subtle threats they all undertake certainly will hold your attention. I liked the different voices relating what happened and their own deceits through their point-of-view. This added a nice layer to the story that was desperately needed after so many chapters of Robert's narrative.
This would be a good choice for a summer vacation read or an airplane book. It will hold your attention, but you aren't going to cry if you should lose or misplace the book and never finish it. The writing is good enough to take note of Walker as an author to watch.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Gallery Books
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