Suicide Thursday by Will Carver

Today I 'm helping to close off the tour for Suicide Thursday, another grea unique, challenging read from Will Carver. Huge thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for the invitation & to the publisher for my review copy.

 

The Blurb

If words could kill…

Eli Hagin can’t finish anything.

He hates his job, but can’t seem to quit. He doesn’t want to be with his girlfriend, but doesn’t know how end things with her, either. Eli wants to write a novel, but he’s never taken a story beyond the first chapter.

Eli also has trouble separating reality from fiction.

When his best friend kills himself, Eli is motivated, for the first time in his life, to finally end something himself, just as Mike did…

Except sessions with his therapist suggest that Eli’s most recent ‘first chapters’ are not as fictitious as he had intended … and a series of text messages that Mike received before his death point to something much, much darker…

 

My Review

This is the sixth of Will's books I've read after Nothing Important Happened Today, Hinton Hollow Death Trip,  The Beresford, Psychopaths Anonymous & The Daves Next Door (sorry, when I started this list I hadn't realised I'd read so many! 😂) all of which have been published since the back end of 2019. And I think I opened every one of those reviews with something along the lines of 'I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to review this book!' Because Will Carver writes books like nobody else and his books are really, really hard to review! 

Suicide Thursday is no different - I don't know how I'm going to review it! Set over a couple of weeks around Suicide Thursday, it focuses on Eli, his girlfriend Jackie and best friend Mike. Several other characters feature but these three form our main cast. It's not a plot spoiler to say Mike kills himself. On a Thursday. But the story focuses on the behaviour of the three main players before and after (for the survivors) Suicide Thursday. There's also the matter of some really alarming texts sent to Mike prior to death. And afterwards, actually. 

The first thing I should say is that will not be for everyone, as you will have gathered from the title. And the scene is graphic. But Suicide Thursday has got lots to say about friendship, desperation and determination, and the power of words.

Eli is such an interesting character. He hates his job, which is one he could be reasonably successful at if he put his mind to it. He wants to finish with Jackie, most of the time anyway, but can't seem to do it. And he really, really wants to write a novel but can't seem to manage that either. Ideas aren't the problem, they come thick and fast, but rather getting past the first chapter. He's got a library of first chapters, some of which we get to read - would love to read more, but no second chapters. He discusses all these things with his therapist and their sessions are something else. Mike's death hits him hard but he's maybe a little jealous because Mike actually got to finish something. It's a really interesting idea. 

Text exchanges on Mike's phone are interspersed throughout the book and I found them quite distressing, and really wanted to know who was sending them.  They are very dark. Mike seems like a lovely man who has just lost all hope. Men's mental health is not discussed enough and whilst this is fiction, and it's shocking, it's a reminder to us all to check in on our friends. But it's also a reminder to be careful what we say.

The story jumps backwards and forwards around Suicide Thursday but the chapters all indicate where we are. You have to keep your wits about you though! From the peripheral characters I loved the two Teds, I could just picture them, and my heart went out to Mike's dad. 

Sorry, this review is very bitty! Told you it was hard! Suicide Thursday is less aggressive than some of Will's other books with no direct addresses to the reader. He does have a lot to say, however, about religion, in this case Catholicism.  But he tells a tale incorporating love and loss, friendship and heartbreak, mental health, darkness and desperation, release and grief. And the power of words. Is there a happy ending? You'll need to read it to find out. This is a dark, challenging and shocking novel, but not without its lighter moments, and well worth a read.

The Author

Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series and the critically acclaimed, mind-blowingly original Detective Pace series that includes Good Samaritans (2018), Nothing Important Happened Today (2019) and Hinton Hollow Death Trip (2020), all of which were ebook bestsellers and selected as books of the year in the mainstream international press. Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for the Goldsboro Glass Bell Award 2020 and Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for Guardian Not the Booker Prize, and was followed by three standalone literary thrillers, The Beresford, Psychopaths Anonymous (both optioned for TV) and The Daves Next Door. He lives in Reading with his family.

The Pain Tourist by Paul Cleave

Hello! Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? Did you miss me? Back from my biggest holiday in 23 years, although if you're following my socials, it looks like I'm still away! However, I am home & jumping back in today for my stop on the blog tour for The Pain Tourist by Paul Cleave. Huge thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for invite & to the publisher for my review copy.

 

The Blurb

How can you catch a killer
When the only evidence is a dream…?

James Garrett was critically injured when he was shot following his parents’ execution, and no one expected him to waken from a deep, traumatic coma. When he does, nine years later, Detective Inspector Rebecca Kent is tasked with closing the case that her now retired colleague, Theodore Tate, failed to solve all those years ago.

But, between that, and hunting for Copy Joe – a murderer on a spree, who’s imitating Christchurch’s most notorious serial killer – she’s going to need Tate’s help.

Especially when they learn that James has lived out another life in his nine-year coma, and there are things he couldn’t possibly know, including the fact that Copy Joe isn’t the only serial killer in town…

The Pain Tourist is published by Orenda Books and came out on 10th November 2022.

 

My Review

Although The Pain Tourist is Paul Cleave's thirteenth novel, it's only the second one I've read following last year's The Quiet People. But that one blew me away so leapt at the chance to read this one. Just need to find the others now...

This has a hell of an opening, heartstopping, heartbreaking. 11 year old James Garrett falls into a coma, where he stays for nine years. When he finally wakes he can't understand that his parents are dead because, for him, they've lived a full life in the intervening years. Nobody can explain what he's experienced in Coma World or the detail of his memory of it. As well as trying to solve the Garrett case, Detective Kent also has another major case on her plate & then the possibility of a third one. But can the latter even be plausible, considering where the information came from?

There is A LOT going on in this book! It's not always action of the kicking down doors, guns blazing variety but that doesn't mean it's not packed with excitement. Three different storylines, Coma World, a tight cast of characters, and an 11 year old in a 20 year old body trying to navigate a world he doesn't understand. James is the standout character for me - brave, vulnerable, determined. I liked Kent too for much the same reasons and developed a fondness for Tate, a man with his own share of demons. And Dr McCoy was inspired! But everyone is well drawn, including the antagonists. Reading my notes back reminds me how frustrated I was trying to work out the identity of Copy Joe! I failed. And the discussion around the pain tourists of the title, gosh, some people. 

I like that whilst Cleave explains how Coma World might have come about, he doesn't go into detail of explain the science behind it, if that's even possible. It remains a mystery, a world within a world, and I love that. 

The Pain Tourist is action packed, fast moving with short, sharp chapters. It's compulsive reading, a crime story with a difference. And one with a whole lot of heart. 

The Author

Paul Cleave is an award-winning author who often divides his time between his home city of Christchurch, New Zealand, where his novels are set, and Europe, where none of his novels are set. His books have been translated into over twenty languages. He’s won the won the Ngaio Marsh Award three times, the Saint-Maur Crime Novel of the Year Award, and Foreword Reviews Thriller of the Year, and has been shortlisted for the Ned Kelly, Edgar and Barry Awards. He’s thrown his Frisbee in over forty countries, plays tennis badly, golf even worse, and has two cats – which is often two too many. The Pain Tourist is his (lucky) thirteenth novel.