Broken Flowers by Kate McQuaile
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 4th August 2021
Published: 9th July 2021
★ 1 star
DESCRIPTION:
Your mother. The one person you trust. What if you're wrong?
Widowed Nan is on her way to her beloved son's wedding. She should be excited, but she is dreading her return to Paradise Place - a small area of Notting Hill that she hasn't dared set foot on for decades. Nan had arrived there as a young girl in the late seventies, desperate for freedom and a career as an artist. But, drawn into a dark obsession that spun out of control, Nan was forced to flee.
And while the only thing seemingly connecting her son's wedding and her old secret life is Paradise Place, Nan quickly gets the impression that someone is watching her every move . . . someone she thought was dead.
MY REVIEW:
It's no secret that I am not a fan of slow burn thrillers, unless they have a little extra something to hold my attention while the tension builds. But I found BROKEN FLOWERS to be so slow burning that the pace was non-existent.
Nan Brown is returning to London for her estranged son's wedding to a woman she has yet to meet. She hasn't been back since she boarded a train to take her back to Yorkshire some forty years ago. Then two years ago her husband Chris died and she hasn't seen her son Ben since.
Now she's back and her son has sent a car to collect her from the station and take her to her hotel and from there another car will meet her later that evening to transport her to their house where they are all gathering to celebrate the upcoming wedding. But as the car takes her through the familiar streets of London bringing her closer and closer to her past, all her fears return to haunt her as they pull up in front of an address she had hoped never to see again...let alone return to.
Number 4 Paradise Place - where a tragedy that haunts her nightmares occurred four decades ago. This was not a happy time for her and she has kept that part of her life secret for many years. Is it all about to erupt to the surface?
But as the guests mingle and Nan lays eyes on her son for the first time in two years, there is one guest she has not met...who has yet to arrive. The mysterious godfather of Ben's fiance, Marie-Laure. And then there is a face from her past she thought she would never see again...he couldn't be here, could he? Because he's dead! He died forty years ago! Is she hallucinating?
The narration shifts between THEN and NOW as Nan's past life comes back to haunt her present, as well as through various characters as well as voice from the past. I don't mind past and present stories and usually find them the most engaging...however BROKEN FLOWERS was not it. Nan's constant rehashing over everything that took pages and pages when a paragraph would have sufficed just grated on me as well as the slow to non-existent pace. I am not a huge fan of over descriptive stories and prefer to have an equal amount of dialogue.
I cannot say when the pace picked up, as I gave up before it bored me to sleep. But I have seen most reviewers say that it didn't get interesting until the last quarter of the book. Boy, am I glad I didn't stick around for that because in my view that is far too late to start making things interesting.
This was my introduction to Kate McQuaile and I can't say I was excited about it. But it may appeal to fans who love their thrillers the slow burning simmering type.
I would like to thank #KateMcQuaile, #Netgalley and #Quercus for an ARC of #BrokenFlowers in exchange for an honest review.
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