Today it's my turn on the BlogTour Two Tides to Turn by R.R. Gall. It's a story full of emotional turmoil and guilt.
RR Gall lives in Scotland and is the author of:
The Case of the Pig in the Evening Suit, The Case of Colourful Clothes and Kilts, The Case of the Hermit's Guest Bedroom, Two Tides To Turn, A Different Place to Die, Only the Living Can Die.
Visit rrgall.com
About the book
A family ripped asunder. A terrible secret lurks in a thrilling novel of love, grief, and mystery.
Patrick thought his grandfather, John, died before he was born.
In later life, he finds out that it wasn't true. For the first five years of Patrick's life, they stayed in the same small village. So why were they kept apart?
Patrick wishes to search the past to find the reason - but only if he can be united with his young daughter first. And that means bringing her home to Scotland. It means journeying to France to take her away from the care of her mother, Patrick's ex-wife.
In 1915, with the war raging in Europe, John is a young man working on the family farm. Not yet old enough to enlist but aware of its looming threat, he meets Catherine. But his attempts at courtship end suddenly when an accident rips his life apart.
Told in alternate chapters, set, mainly, in South-West Scotland, this is the dramatic story of Patrick, interwoven with John's traumatic life.
This was a strange one, perhaps because it felt as if the two stories playing out at the same time was sometimes to the detriment of one of them, despite the fact both needed to be told.
To understand Patrick and his actions we have to go back and understand his father, and his grandfather. The actions of one man become clearer when put in context - the context being the past. Why Patrick feels as if he has no other choice but to go to extreme lengths to see his daughter.
What both John and Patrick have in common is grief and guilt. Those emotions define their lives, and not necessarily in a good way either. They also have complicated relationships with their fathers, which takes a toll on the next generation.
At times the story appears to be a little disjointed. Switching from past to present fairly often makes it a little hard to keep up with which character the focus is on. By spreading everything equally it was harder to determine the general gist of said story.
At the same time I don't want to negate the moments of clarity, which had a literary feel to them. Moments that were full of emotional turmoil, anguish, guilt and painful memories. The beautiful introspective moments that rang loudly with a brutal realism.
It's a contemporary read about loss, grief and character-forming relationships. How the sins of the father fall on the son or whether it is possible to break free from a dysfunctional cycle?
Buy Two Tides to Turn at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com.
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