She Treads Softly: The Family Home

Sunday, November 10, 2024

The Family Home

The Family Home by L H Stacey
11/20/24; 322 pages
Boldwood Books

The Family Home by L H Stacey is a recommended mystery.

Nine years ago Hattie Gilby's father was killed and her mother, Imogen, was seriously injured and has been under constant care ever since. At that time Hattie left her home and hasn't been back since. Now she has received calls from her brothers Adam and Luke, and her cousin Louisa, telling her that her mother is in hospice care and has something she wants to say to her children while they are all there. Imogen hasn't talked for years as it was a struggle so it has to be important. Hattie returns home to face her brothers and hear what her mother has to say.

After an attention grabbing opening, the pace evens out until the end. The narrative alternates between events from nine years ago and the present day and are mainly from Hattie's point-of-view with a few chapters from Sophie, the wife of a former boyfriend/neighbor, and an ending chapter from another character. The alternating timeline serves a purpose, but wasn't entirely successful as the information and background could have covered the events it needed to with fewer chapters.

None of the characters are fully realized as unique individuals and they are all unlikable. Actually, Hattie became more disagreeable as the novel continued. It would have been nice to actually care about one of the characters as the ending approached.

While the plot did keep me reading, I predicted the direction the story was taking early on and was disappointed that I was correct. There are several times you need to suspend disbelief while reading. Thanks to Boldwood Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.