Today it's my turn on the BlogTour Killing Them with Kindness by Andy Paulcroft.
Enter the Giveaway – to Win a signed copy of Killing Them With Kindness (Open INT)
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.
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About the book
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 afterwards, 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.
I think Deirdre and I are on the same page when it comes to enjoying life. What's the point of doing everything you can to achieve the 21st century version of immortality if you get no pleasure from the methodology. Healthy, skinny, non-smokers drop dead suddenly too. And when is a long life too long? When you take the way Western societies treat the elderly into consideration I wonder if living in isolation and/or in the care of strangers is something worth living for.
You might as well break rules and have a little fun or you could end up wondering whether you had a life well-lived?
What a wonderful woman, eh? Unless the whole point of leading the elderly to break the rules and enjoy life is because there is something in it for Deidre. A small matter of inheriting everything they own perhaps? That would put a different slant on things, right?
I found it a little disjointed and was confused until I got the gist of where Paulcroft was going with it. Sometimes the characters and all the relatives were a bit like a bizarre game of memory.
Although the story has moments of humour at the core the author shines a light on some important social issues like alcoholism, depression and the elderly in our societies. Unlike other cultures there is a lack of reverence and the younger generations are taught to move out and move on to build their own family pods. The elderly often find themselves in positions of vulnerability and isolated from society. Not exactly a raving recommendation for the Western world where the old end up in expensive and often inadequate care facilities.
It's a mystery mixed with humour and an often biting commentary on life as we know it.
Buy Killing Them with Kindness at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon.
Enter the Giveaway – to Win a signed copy of Killing Them With Kindness (Open INT)
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