Killing Them With Kindness
by Andy Paulcroft
Deirdre Cossette is the self-appointed carer for the elderly on The Avenue and all of her friends have stories to tell. Margery, whose comfortable life was destroyed by a knock on the door. Stan, who made a mistake as a young footballer which cost him his friends and his self-respect. Marina, whose slim and stylish figure hides a terrible secret from the summer of Live Aid. And, Oliver and Archie, who have survived everything from post-war homophobia to a family tragedy – and they have done it together. Deirdre believes that everyone should have a choice. If they want to live on a diet of cakes, drink the alcoholic equivalent of a small hydrotherapy pool, or take on a toy boy lover in spite of a dodgy heart, Deirdre believes it is their right to do so. If they remember her in their wills afterward, that’s not her fault, is it? However, not everyone agrees with her. When disgruntled relatives from the present meet up with disgruntled ghosts from her past, Deirdre discovers the cost of being kind.
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
‘Oh, look at them.’ Deirdre sighed as she stared from the window. ‘They have the faces of two beautiful gondoliers, and yet their souls are more akin to a bad case of gonorrhoea.’
Godfrey tutted. ‘This is most unfortunate,’ he said, ‘I hoped you would be able to see sense without my legal team becoming involved.’ His ‘legal team’ was actually a solicitor with questionable qualifications and the rumour of a prison record. He operated from a cabin near the old gasworks in the town where they lived, but Godfrey thought that the terminology sounded grander. To actually employ a legal team would have cost money… To him, spending money was like performing karaoke. It was something that other people did while you favoured them with a pitying look and a snide remark.
While Deirdre loved people, she also liked her own privacy. She turned the neglected collection of old stones into her own version of a fairy tale cottage, camouflaged by trees and only stumbled upon by ramblers if they had a faulty GPS and no natural sense of direction.
My Review:
I adored every word of this wryly penned and cunningly crafted missive. Each page was shot through with brain-tickling levity and diabolically clever wit. I was staggered, mesmerized, thoroughly entertained, and completely awed to realize that is was only the author’s second book. I had reams of favorite quotes and nearly perished with the pain of whittling them down for this review. The writing was slyly amusing and engaging storytelling at its best as sharp and vivid visuals were conjured that stayed with me long after I had put my Kindle to rest.
The premise was unusual and highly relevant and while it was exceedingly clever and brilliantly paced, the tale was extremely well-crafted and thoughtfully rendered while sneakily hitting all the feels multiple times. I gasped, smirked, giggled-snorted, and gleefully laughed aloud in a manner that some might describe as cackling. Andy Paulcroft is a true artist who paints with the most vibrant of words.
The premise was unusual and highly relevant and while it was exceedingly clever and brilliantly paced, the tale was extremely well-crafted and thoughtfully rendered while sneakily hitting all the feels multiple times. I gasped, smirked, giggled-snorted, and gleefully laughed aloud in a manner that some might describe as cackling. Andy Paulcroft is a true artist who paints with the most vibrant of words.
About The Author
Andy Paulcroft grew up in Weston-super-Mare, and his love of books started when he borrowed his sister’s copy of Five Run Away Together and exaggerated a minor illness in order to finish reading it. He has since worked as a chef in France, Switzerland, Corsica and the North Highlands of Scotland before settling as a catering manager at a boarding school in Dorset. After many years of writing two to three chapters of a book before discarding it, he finally published his first novel Postcards From Another Life – in December 2017. The wonderful feeling of completing a novel was only surpassed by receiving a positive reaction from people who had read it. He retired from catering and recently published his second novel Killing Them With Kindness. He is now working on his third book.
Follow Andy
GIVEAWAY
Win a signed copy of Killing Them With Kindness (Open INT)
*Terms and Conditions
Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will be passed to the giveaway organizer and used only for the fulfillment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for dispatch or delivery of the prize.
No comments:
Post a Comment