by Will Carver
SYNOPSIS
A disillusioned nurse suddenly learns how to care.
An injured young sportsman wakes up find that he can see only in black and
white.
A desperate old widower takes too many pills and believes that two angels have
arrived to usher him through purgatory.
Two agoraphobic men called Dave share the symptoms of a brain tumour, and
frequently waken their neighbour with their ongoing rows.
Separate lives, running in parallel, destined to collide and then explode.
Like the suicide bomber, riding the Circle Line, day after day, waiting for the right
time to detonate, waiting for answers to his questions: Am I God? Am I dead?
Will I blow up this train?
Shocking, intensely emotive and wildly original, Will Carver’s The Daves Next
Door is an explosive existential thriller and a piercing examination of what it
means to be human … or not.
REVIEW
Five strangers are struggling with their lives for different reasons; A widower who can't face living without his wife, a nurse who has lost the enthusiasm to care for anyone, a man who is terrified that at any moment the tumour in his brain might end his life, a sportsman who has to face the fact that his injury will end a career he has spent his whole life working towards, and a suicide bomber who has to make a decision as to whether all of these people deserve to die with him/her/them that day on the train.
I very rarely spend this long trying to write a review but in this case I really didn't know where to start. The Daves Next Door is undoubtedly the most unique crime novel I have read in a long time, but I don't know why I would have expected anything else from the follow-up to Psychopaths Anonymous - this is crime fiction with a side of crazy and I loved it!
I also don't usually pick out specific sections of a book to comment on, but Chapter 40 was the moment I realised just how brilliant this book was. In this chapter, the narrator speaks to the reader (breaking through the fourth wall) and explains that the story of each of the characters has been broken up to increase the tension (which was spot on). They then go on to ask a series of questions to the reader - asking who your favourite character is, what you think is happening with specific situations, who you think they might be. Like a recap after an interval, it actually made me stop and think about the story, what I was enjoying about it, which bits were frustrating etc. By telling me what I should have been thinking about up until that point it improved my enjoyment of the book and immersed me in the story even more. This is an author who knows exactly what they were trying to achieve, and succeeded!
I won't go into any more detail about the storyline because this is a book that you should read cold to get the full experience, but if you are looking for something a bit different to your typical crime fiction novel, you can't go wrong here. This is a topic that maybe a lot of authors would avoid, but you can always count on Will Carver to go in a direction that others might be afraid of. Another massive hit for me!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series. He spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He turned down a professional rugby contract to study theatre and television at King Alfred’s, Winchester, where he set up a successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his two children. Will’s latest title published by Orenda Books, The Beresford is out in July. His previous title Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize, while Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Good Samaritans was book of the year in Guardian, Telegraph and Daily Express, and hit number one on the ebook charts.
Thanks to Anne Cater - @RandomTTours, Orenda Books - @OrendaBooks and Will Carver @will_carver for the opportunity to read and review.
Fiction: Crime Fiction
Publisher: Orenda Books
ISBN: 978-1-914585-18-0
Pages: 276pp
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