The Return

 

The Return

Michael Gruber

ISBN: 978-0-8050-9129-8

Sept 2013

4 Stars

*I won this ARC copy via a library thing giveaway*

Richard Marder is a man with many secrets but even those closest to him would never guess that he isn’t exactly what they believe him to be. Only one man, Patrick Francis Skelly, knows Marder’s dark side.  Their friendship, conceived during the Vietnam War, is the only relationship he has left to rely on. Marder, feeling like he has nothing left to lose, decides he must have vengeance for the actions that changed his life catastrophically; Skelly goes along for the ride. That ride, although very dangerous, brings them together with courageous people and a better understanding of their own morality.

The pacing of this novel was at times brutally slow. Honestly, there were a couple of times that I almost gave up on it. Fortunately I had to know what happened so I kept reading and it proved to be worth it in the end. Twists and turns kept the plot interesting, but the best part for me were the character relationships.   Marder and Skelly’s friendship is dysfunctional but in a way that makes them closer. There is the “odd couple” feel to them that provides some needed comic relief. This is one of those novels that I was more invested in the minor characters, but that proved to be a good thing in this case.

From the description provided on the back of the book a reader might expect this to be a violent action novel. There is the violent aspect but it goes a lot deeper into humanity and there’s an emotional side that I didn’t expect going into it which are positive attributes. Overall I enjoyed this novel and would recommend it, especially to those that don’t mind violence.