The
Plot:
Rich,
successful Jake Mitchell is in love with Jane, the wife of his best friend,
Adam. Unable to fall in love with anyone else, he settles for a beautiful
trophy wife and marries Adam’s sister, Ann. Life becomes more complicated when
he and Ann have two children—children Adam and Jane long for, but can’t have.
As
Jake and Ann’s marriage disintegrates, so does the world around them and Jake
is haunted by choices he has made.
Jake
meets another woman, Joyce, and thinks, maybe he can start again. But what
about his children? He can’t leave them with Ann; he can’t take them with him.
Finally,
he makes a decision that will change all their lives forever.
About the Author:
Valerie
Keogh is a qualified nurse with a BA in English and an MA in American Literature.
She continues to work as a nurse and writes when she can, some days pages, some
days just a few words.
The
initial idea for Nicola Connolly came at work one day while she was throwing
away unused medication. She wondered what someone could do with it, and came up
with the idea for the novel, Deadly Sleep.
Nicola,
one of her colleagues, encouraged her, and as a reward, she stole her name!
Connolly,
is from John Connolly, one of her favourite authors.
The
idea for That One May Smile, came
from the churchyard near her home—a photograph of which was used for the cover
shot.
The
skull, on the cover on the Nicola Connolly novels, came from an antique shop in
Falmouth which was why she decided to make that the location for The Devil has Power.
Review:
Exit Five from Charing
Cross
was simply unreadable. Jake Mitchell is on his way to meet his best friend for
lunch, having just lost his last lucrative client at the trading company where
he’s a stock broker. As he exits the tube at Charing Cross, he notices a woman
sitting at an al-fresco table near the station and decides to hit on her,
mentally comparing her to his wife. I don’t like men who cheat on their wives,
so my regard for the protagonist pretty much went out the window right there.
There’s
very little action in the book. Most of it is told in massive info dumps, as
Jake reminisces about his life leading up to that moment. The author needed to
get out of Jake’s head and into the action. Instead of saying he went to stay
with his in-laws and droning on with his memories of the visit, take us there
with action and dialog.
I
put the book down twice and tried to go back and finish it, but I just could
not. I hoped it would get better as it went on, but I never learned anything about
Jake that made me like him any better, but nothing did. I do not recommend this book.
Amazon Author Page: https://smile.amazon.com/Valerie-Keogh/e/B00LK0NMB8
Warnings: Incredibly
Boring, Unlikeable Protagonist
Length: 285 Pages
Digital Price: $2.99
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for visiting.
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