It's an absolute pleasure to take part in the BlogTour A Patient Man by S. Lynn Scott. It's a well-written and plotted compelling crime read with a psychological thriller element to it
S. Lynn Scott began her adult life determined to take the theatrical world by storm. The theatrical world, it turned out, wasn’t quite so keen to embrace her as she had expected it would be, and so, nothing daunted, she successfully turned her undoubted talents to Terpsichorean entertainment in dark, exotic places. There she learned that a jewelled bra and a very large feathered fan are no substitutes for a good book and a cheese and Branston Pickle sandwich. Her further youthful adventures are, mercifully, lost in the mists of time and she now lives with suitable decorum in Leicestershire where she writes, insists on directing others who are better at acting than she is, dreams of working for the RSC and then writes some more. “Elizabeth, William…and Me” was her debut novel. A Patient Man is her second novel.
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Buy A Patient Man
About the book
It is 1976 and Mikey, eight-years-old and street-wise beyond his years, is looking forward to a summer of freedom, roaming the creeks and the mud-flats of Canvey Island. But violent emotions are rumbling beneath the surface, about to destroy all that he thought he knew.
When Mikey's neighbours, the Freemans, win a great deal of money, the old couple become the targets of a criminal act that leaves Peggy Freeman dead and her husband, Bert thirsting for revenge. Believing that young Mikey's family is responsible, Bert devises a highly unusual but devastatingly effective form of reprisal. But where does the guilt really lie, and will there be punishment or redemption?
Told from Mikey's viewpoint with light touches of humour, A Patient Man is a gripping crime novel peopled with believable characters who are drawn inexorably in to a story that explores the effects of greed, money and the human need for retribution.
The story is told in first person from the point of view of nine-year-old Mikey. He spends his days exploring the mudflats of Canvey Island, as only a child of certain eras or decades will relate to.
Nowadays building tree houses, climbing walls and spending every minute of non-darkness and free time getting up to mischief is lost to the youth of today. Technology has replaced the natural urge to forage, hunt and explore our surroundings.
Mikey is a child in the 70s and nothing is more enticing than what happens behind the twitching curtains of a neighbours house or tormenting the local animals. Torment in a cheeky way and not in a serial killer way. Just sticking up for Mikey. The majority of us didn't spend our childhoods tormenting animals, although I must admit I did like to make the gaggle of geese in our local neighbourhood honk and hiss. Insider tip: geese are excellent guard dogs.
I have to say I thought this was an excellent read. Scott captures the time period and the essence of small town life, and of course the hierarchy of social status really well. The fact Mikey's family belongs to the lower socio-economic status, translation - common as muck, makes them social pariahs. Not that they are bothered by it.
The assumption of a certain peace and status quo in the street is shattered when an elderly couple wins the lottery. Not long after that a woman disappears, an event that slowly destroys life as Mikey knows it.
The question the reader is left with at the end is whether what happens is in Mikey's best interest. Indeed if you take the criminal element out of it and replace it with a Pygmalion premise the question still remains the same. Does an education, elocution and etiquette replace the need for family and human affection, the need for biological connections.
The other moral dilemma is whether revenge and justice is worth it and worth waiting for.
It's a well-written and plotted compelling crime read with a psychological thriller element to it. I look forward to reading more by this author.
Buy A Patient Man at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.Publisher: Troubador - Matador Publishing; pub date 21 Aug. 2018. Buy at Amazon com.
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