Review: The Promise

The Promise by Lucy Diamond
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A family tragedy, Dan's brother Patrick dies suddenly. Just before his death he quarrelled with Dan and with his (Patrick's) wife Zoe. Patrick leaves Zoe to look after three children and his small property rental business. Dan was supposed to be on a three month sabbatical from his accountancy job, touring South America, but Patrick's death leads him to cancel the trip.

With three months on his hands, and tired of wallowing in guilt and sorrow, Dan determines to help out Zoe and the children, taking over the jobs that Patrick can no longer do. Dan starts with the business but progresses to taking more of an interest in his nephews and niece. But very quickly Dan learns things about Patrick, secrets, that he wishes he'd never discovered.

I really liked this at first. Dan, the younger brother, trying to step into Patrick's shoes, trying to make up to his family for Patrick's death. My biggest issue was Patrick. During the course of the book Patrick is revealed as a lot of bad things (trying to be discreet) but there doesn't seem to be any logical reason for it. Surely someone in his family and friends would have noticed if he was selfish or a narcissist or psychotic? So I was left with the overwhelming feeling that he was simultaneously a good guy, a great father, a wonderful husband and none of those things. He didn't seem a real character.

I would say up to about 60%, maybe 65% of this book I was loving it. The remainder dragged and the ending just kind of deflated for me.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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