I really like the Kingsbridge series so was hesitant to read a non-Kingsbridge story from Follet as I thought I would set the bar to high. Well I didn’t need to worry because his story telling is still the same, just it’s a different era and different specialty field. I never thought I would be so intrigued by banking LOL.
The Kingsbridge novels are all told from a variety of points of view, including some of the antagonists, but I think this is the best case so far of that feeling of not wanting the villains to get caught, even though they are sabotaging the ‘good’ characters. The suspense was really present in a lot of moments. And despite Micky being a multi-murderer, he was written in such a way that I felt pity towards him, despite all his actions.
Augusta though, not so much. While you could argue that Micky did what he did out of fear (whether it was justified or not), Augusta always acted out of self-righteous pride. So it was quite entertaining how so many of her actions actually worked against her. She may have made her targets unhappy but ultimately she also made herself unhappy. I felt like the best part was how her world actually started unravelling once Joseph died and she was thinking about how she was glad he was gone…
Another difference was it felt like some of the characters sensibly backed off even thought they were aware that’s what Augusta was after. Samuel and Hugh both confronting her were powerful moments for me. And I liked how principled Maisie and Hugh were about their relationship, although they both faltered at points, in the moment the other didn’t and so I felt like I could whole-heartedly support them. Because Solly really was the best man in the story and I’m glad neither ended up betraying him. I really liked Hugh’s speech about valuing integrity.
I loved how many strong women were in this story, even Augusta. I was happy that April managed to make her way up in her world and Emily’s strength despite being a relatively sheltered girl. I also liked how Clementine stood up to her mother in the end. And Rachael was awesome, also glad she got her happy ending too.
I felt like Augusta got off lightly compared to Micky, but I guess in her case her loss of mobility and battered pride are worse than death. Poor Solly and Tony though (and Peter Middleton). And Edward a bit I guess. Like Hugh, I saw him more of a victim of his mother and Micky, although he very obviously didn’t try to help himself either.
The various ‘modern day’ concepts that were brought up (like Dan’s work insurance and Hugh’s liquidator) was very cool. And it was also cool how you knew that everything was going to come crashing down and the majority of the novel was just a very slow build up to that point. I also really liked how as the reader I thought I understood what had happened at the pool in the past, but I learnt along with the characters of the book the actual details and motivations behind the event. So it ended up being a bit of a mystery even if it wasn’t really.
So once again Follet delivers and now I have to be very careful about when I read his novels because it’s very very hard to put them down and not think about this non-stop 🤣 I really enjoyed his reflection on his early works too. I wonder at what point he started writing intriguing characters. I see on his website he has a section for ‘early books’ so maybe I should avoid those ones or read them first before tackling the read of his bibliography 😝
Categories: Book Reviews
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