Jonathan Buckley (1) (1956–)

Tell is compulsive reading.

The text consists of a series of interviews over five sessions. We are reading a transcript of a recording, marked with [pauses], and occasional lacunae that are marked [indistinct]. These gaps in the narrative could be when the speaker has turned away from the microphone, and/or they could be prompts from the interviewer.

The narrator is a gardener who works for a mega-wealthy entrepreneur and art collector who has mysteriously disappeared. It's not clear how long ago this disappearance occurred, and at first the circumstances and purpose of the interview are not clear either. A police interview perhaps? or an interview with a journalist? It turns out to be an interview with a scriptwriter, so someone wants to make a film or a doco...

So, the unnamed gardener tells what she knows about Curtis. She's gossipy, and she obviously draws on gossip that she's heard from other members of the staff. The mansion is described as a 'palace' so the staff is large, but our informant is class-conscious too and though she is at pains to stress that Curtis isn't like other rich people, she might well be labelling it a 'palace' to make a point. She is an unreliable narrator. But maybe uber-rich people can buy privately owned palaces in Scotland?

Over the course of the book we learn that Curtis was an adoptee abandoned by his mother, but that after a couple of bad placements, he fell on his feet with lovely people who cared for him like their own. He made his money in the fashion industry thanks in part to his first wife, Lily, who died. There have been women since then, but which ones were lovers is open to our narrator's conjectures. There are children and grandchildren, and these all provide an opportunity for the narrator to reminisce, ponder, speculate and cast aspersions. Like the structures on the cover of the book, these people are seen from all different angles as she reports from her sources — Asil the chauffeur, Connie the cook, Harry with an axe to grind and so on.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/02/27/tell-by-jonathan-buckley/… (mehr)

This is the story of the Police investigating the death of a tramp on the beach. The murder of the tramp called Henry is really just a small part of the story, the main characters are the Police and how they get on with their investigations and their private lifes. There are alot of recurring side stories. The Police are having problems tracking down Henrys relatives they have lots of wrong leads.

It turns out Henry was called Ivor Clifford who had knocked down and killed a little girl in the 1960s.

The Police never find out who murdered him.

Good book but it was sometimes hard to follow what was going on as it wasnt always clear who was narrating the story.… (mehr)

This novel starts out as a simple crime novel when the body of a local homeless man is found on the beach in winter by a man and his dog (of the title) but it quickly becomes obvious that this is as much about the police officer working on the investigation and his life, than that of Henry. The style is meandering and the author takes delight in the words he uses, pausing to describe something in great detail. The pace of the police investigation is good and one of the strengths of the novel for me, it felt real as small bits of information are gained and investigated and something else of the story of Henry emerges. Less interesting and engaging was the story of the police officer's private life and I found much of this tedious.… (mehr)