Donna Morrissey’s new novel comes with a hearty endorsement from one of my favourite authors, Ron Rash, who’s dubbed it ‘one of the very best novels I have read in years’. It had caught my eye even before I’d seen the press release but after reading that how could I resist? Attentive readers may have noticed that this is the second Rash endorsement I’ve fallen for recently. He was pretty keen on The Barrowfields too. Set in Newfoundland, The Fortunate Brother is the story of a murder which sets the small fishing village in which it takes place abuzz with speculation.
Kyle Now is not at all sure what he’ll do with his future. He has a university place but is unwilling to turn his back on his family, still reeling from the loss of his brother in an accident on the oil rigs. His father spends much of his time in a drunken stupor, his sister has taken off backpacking in Africa and his mother is undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Kyle is shouldering this heavy burden when Clar Gillard’s body is washed up, thought to be drowned then found to be stabbed. This is a community where nothing goes unnoticed or undiscussed. Soon the village is rife with gossip about possible culprits, fingers pointing every which way from Clar’s wife, who he frequently abused, to Kyle’s father, known to detest Clar, to Kyle, himself, beaten by Clar the night of his killing. Over the next few days, Kyle finds himself questioned by the police, stumbling over evidence and trying to keep his father’s head above water as they both face his mother’s operation. Kyle has his suspicions about the identity of the murderer but unlike the rest of the village he knows when to keep his mouth shut.
Tensions run high almost to the end of Morrissey’s taut atmospheric novel. Secrets are plentiful and well-guarded. I guessed the perpetrator correctly early on but that didn’t stop me from changing my mind right up until their identity was revealed. The Now family’s desperate grief is palpable in Morrissey’s depictions of a father unable to talk about his son’s death and a mother patiently working her way through her pain alone. Caught in the middle, Kyle’s angry struggle to protect both parents is both poignant and compellingly convincing. The portrayal of one half of a community unable to keep its mouth shut while the other seems incapable of keeping anything but shtum might seem too convenient in another setting but here in a remote village where ‘everyone was your brother or aunt or cousin or neighbour and they knew your dead like they knew their own’ it seems entirely plausible. Morrissey’s writing is admirable clipped yet vividly evocative of its setting: the landscape and weather are punishing, spoken of as if each were a person with a fickle power over the inhabitants. If The Fortunate Brother is anything to go by, Morrissey and Rash are a fine match: if you like one, I’d be surprised if you didn’t like the other.
Great review, I enjoyed this book as well
Thanks, Cathy. Quite a nail-biter, isn’t it, and such spare yet vivid descriptive writing.
I agree. It’s one of those books where you know from the outset the author really knows how to create great atmosphere and realism.
Not to mention how to keep you guessing!
This does sound good. I’ve not read anything by either author but I’ll certainly look out for them now – spare but vivid writing gets my vote!
Right up my literary alley too! Hope you like them both.
I’m glad it’s not just me who picks books like a trail of breadcrumbs, one leading to another and another on he flimsiest of connections 🙂 Sounds like it’s a productive trail with lots of interesting reads to be discovered.
I’d say Mr Rash has good taste, Belinda!
I’m so glad you liked it! I will have to get to one of Rash’s books one of these days – it sounds like he has good taste. 🙂
Thank you, Naomi. He certainly seems to! At least I know I can rely on his recommendations. Is this one you might read?
I read it already! I think maybe in the summer. 🙂
It was my first Donna Morrissey, and I loved it.
It’s great, isn’t it. I feel I should read Sylvanus Now. Presumably The Fortnuate Brother is a sequel of sorts although it doesn’t seem to be billed as such here.
It’s the third book about the Now family, but it’s also perfectly fine on its own. The first two are “Sylvanus Now” and “What They Wanted”.
Ah, I hadn’t realised that was also in the series.