Benjamin Wood (1)Rezensionen

Frankly, I didn't like the characters. They just weren't likeable people. There was no one in the book that I felt drawn to, that I cared enough about to want to read the story. If I wasn't reading it for my book club I probably wouldn't have finished it.

A curiously moving novel, at its heart a complex father son relationship with leanings towards a psychological thriller. September 2019½

I still enjoyed it despite figuring out what was going on very early in the book. I actually wish my brain didn't work like that because i hate spoilers!! Still trying to decide whether I liked the ending or not - 3.5

The Bellwether Revivals by debut novelist, Benjamin Wood, is in a few words, an embodiment of its own subject matter: genius and enthralling madness—and the fine line it trespasses between the two.

The narrative begins distantly, an omnipotent, observant tone that lays the foundation of its parts for the reader: the characters in Eden, the high-minded musical genius absorbed by his unconventional theories of the power of sound; Iris, his intelligent and musically talented sister who intuitively plays the cello; Oscar, the protagonist of the story, who, as the socially underprivileged and academic outsider in comparison to his new Bellwether friends, helps bring logic and compassion to this highly tense novel.

It is a book that is equally rich in its development of characters as it is in its progressive and climatic plot, which is a feat in itself considering a book usually weighs more in one spectrum than the other.

It’s a story of Eden Bellwether and his exploration of musical theory and music itself, as a force, if rightly composed and attributed, holds physically healing and redemptive powers. His musical genius and inherent self-importance, which perhaps derived from the latent seed of mental disorder was only further perpetuated by a self-indulgent and wealthy upbringing by a family who continually encouraged his prodigious talent and fearfully succumbed to his every wish. The danger of this kind of environment coupled with the mania and complexity of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, only solidified the severity of Eden’s deteriorating psychosis.

He’s a brilliant scholar and gifted musician, but the price of his superior intellect is a costly social incompetence that keeps him from being able to empathize and connect humanely, if not intimately with others. The egocentric nature of his character cannot help itself into amassing into a condescending, cocky, dominant, and controlling individual.

And those that suffer most from his presence and his ever-growing mania, are those who are closest to him, both in relation, in reverent awe, and intellectual worship—and even palpable fear.

From his debutante and complacent mother (Ruth), his confident and overly ambitious father (Theo), his suffering and compliant sister (Iris), to his specifically chosen friends (Marcus, Yin, and Jane) for their tolerance and adoration of Eden himself, as much as for their individual and necessary musical deftness.

Oscar, on the other hand, is resilient to Eden’s charms and holds a sobering view of the man whose mysterious genius is both exemplary and disconcerting. He is the grounding force for all those involved and the one with the most honest compassion as shown in his love and care for Dr. Paulsen, a resident of the nursing home, Cedarbrook, in which he works, and his willingness to involve himself in the matters of Eden’s “mental illness” on behalf of his growing relationship with Eden’s sister, Iris.


This is a powerfully unsettling read that will intrigue even the most logical personality and metaphysical, occult skeptic. It moves from delusions of grandeur to frightening crescendos of absurdity and madness that begs the question of how close and intermingled genius is with giftedness and mental illness.

Filled with the idyllic sanctuary of a wealthy environment found in the Bellwethers’ lifestyle and estate, the genuine intimacy between a couple in love, and the subordinate compliance of friends who love, revere, and almost fear their friend—it’s a gorgeous book and a “hypnotic” read. It’s a subtly frightening, psychological analysis of love, friendship, and sibling rivalry that spirals into a coarse doom of the horrors, dangers, and possibilities of a brilliant mind.

Visual book report available at: https://flic.kr/p/QaWx64

This was just my kind of book! Reminiscent of 'Brideshead Revisited' with a dash of 'Phantom of the Opera' thrown in to spice it up, this tale kept me turning the pages from start to finish. Our working class narrator Owen drags us along with him as he becomes entangled with a slightly off-balanced group from the world of academia.
As Owen's relationship with Iris Bellwether and her brother Eden slowly deepens, the story mounts with tension bringing us to our edge of our seats as we read towards it's conclusion.

Only five stars because Librarything won't let me put ten stars!

The Ecliptic by Benjamin Wood is not your usual fast-paced thriller. Instead, it is a coil that continuously and artfully compresses until the very last chapters.

When we first meet the narrator, Knell, she has lived at an artists’ retreat for almost a decade. Like everyone at Portmantle, she has scrapped her real identity and adheres to strict guidelines regarding daily life that allow the retreat to function continuously and in complete secrecy. In return, the artists secure solitude and a hiatus from daily worries in the hope that inspiration will return. The arrival of a troubled and exasperating young man serves as the impetus for huge, and possibly dangerous, changes at Portmantle.

As events proceed, the narration twists together Knell’s personal history and the events unraveling at Portmantle. What follows is a quiet, intense read about a desperate search for redemption, independence, personal worth, truth and inspiration. Although you may not always understand why certain information is being presented, in the end, it all makes complete sense. The true test of any thriller!

I have just finished this novel, and now, I am going back to reread it. I must find the clues I missed the first time around.

It isn't nearly as good as The Secret History. That is a great book, this one was barely ok.

What do the scientific concept of the ecliptic, an artist's refuge off the coast of Turkey, and Scottish painter Elspeth "Knell" Conroy have to do with each other? Explaining this puzzle becomes the story of The Ecliptic by Benjamin Wood. The book is hard to discuss without a spoiler, but for me, the ending unfortunately makes the rest of the book seem contrived and makes this not the story for me.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2016/04/the-ecliptic.html

Reviewed for the Penguin First to Read program

This is one of those books where I have to marvel at the skill of the author. I’m completely in awe of Mr. Wood’s talent. “The Ecliptic” is a literary masterpiece that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Most of this book takes place in an exclusive artist colony, Portmantle. Artists at this colony use assumed names. They mostly are artists who have reached a point in their work where they’re having difficulty going forward. They find rest and peace in this colony in an environment that hopefully will help them move on in their artist endeavors. Elspeth Conroy, who is also known as Knell, is the main character. She’s a Scottish painter and has been at Portmantle for 10 years. She’s made close friends with playwright MacKinney, author Quickman and architect Pettifer. Into their midst comes teenage Fullerton. His introduction into the colony begins a mysterious descent into madness.

The book moves from the story taking place at the artist colony to fill us in on Knell’s previous life, her artist and emotional struggles and the reason why she came to Portmantle. Her story is a completely absorbing and heart wrenching one. I grew to love Knell and will never forget her. The book accelerates towards the end into quite an exciting thriller. Not all readers will love the end of this book. I myself don’t usually like this type of ending but it’s done so well that I can’t find it in my heart to take off any points from my rating as I don’t see where it harms the book as a whole. In fact, it brings all of the mysterious parts of the book to a complete understanding.

Beautifully written and most highly recommended.

This book was given to me by the publisher through Edelweiss in return for an honest review.

The ecliptic is the path the sun *seems* to follow across the sky during the year. I say ‘seem’ because in reality, the sun does not revolve around the earth; it’s an illusion humans have that the sun revolves around them. Humans are good at thinking things like that, whether they are thinking about the universe or their personal situations.

Elspeth Conroy is an artist; she came from a working class Scottish home, rather forced her way into art school, and accidently became a star of the art world while still quite young. But now she is stuck… the art she makes is commercially successful, but, she feels, it is without soul. To make matters worse, the man she loves, her mentor, has disappeared. After a fair amount of time, she is reunited with her mentor, and, she is offered a chance to go to Portmantle, a very private retreat for artists who have lost their inspiration. Hidden away on an island in the Sea of Marmara, the artist goes in utter secrecy, telling no one and communicating with no one, to a place where there are few responsibilities or distractions, where they can strive to complete their next great work. She spends a decade there, before the arrival of a teenaged boy upsets the colony- and especially her.

Elspeth (“Knell” on Portmantle) has been (she feels) a failure in both love and art. What will it take for her to succeed in one or both of them? While I felt that the love issue was minor compared to the art issue, it’s still an important impetus for Elspeth’s actions. The novel examines the artistic process and questions where inspiration comes from. One thing I found interesting- and haven’t figured out the meaning of yet- is that in both of Elspeth’s artistic breakthroughs an almost mystical substance is a part of them. Her first breakthrough comes when her mentor/lover finds a cache of old Ripolin, the first oil enamel made for house painting. Apparently, artists used it for a while; Picasso used a lot of it. The second time, years later, her artistic block yields to bioluminescent fungi, dried, ground, and mixed with oil. I found it humorous that she also ground her anti-depressants up and used them as paint- that one was pretty obvious.

The prose is beautiful and rich; Elspeth, however, sounds like a much older woman than her actual age. I was a good way into the novel before I realized what her real age was. Did she learn to tell her story so elegantly in art school? Is she telling her story from a much later date than it took place? I’m not complaining; the book was a joy to read, with descriptions like jewels. It’s a long book- nearly 500 pages- but I didn’t want to put it down.

I picked this book up because of a blurb on the back cover that mentions the power of music. I read and scanned my way thru it but was disappointed in the analytics and the prose. Only the story line kept me going - some nice tie-ins, a few surprises.

Questo libro d'esordio tanto acclamato in Inghilterra non mi ha convinto, L'inizio è avvincente ma poi si perde nei meandri di una storia complessa e noiosa.½

Six-word review: Youth exerts strange power over friends.

Extended review:

From the beginning, The Bellwether Revivals has a creepy Tana French feel. In fact, the story of an outsider who joins a group of five friends with a pronounced strangeness about them, friends who share some mystic bond and engage in unusual ritual practices, is more than a little reminiscent of The Likeness.

The story takes off in an altogether different direction, however; the similarity is more one of atmosphere than of plot and character, although in both there is a dominant figure whose exceptional qualities rule the group. In the present case, an almost unearthly charisma gives rise to a collective delusion, with traumatic results.

Even though I'd place this one several notches below The Likeness on the scale for style, execution, characterization, and polish, I think it's likely to appeal to very similar readerly tastes. The dynamic among strikingly different personalities and the way they complement one another, and the effects that occur as a newcomer attempts to fit in, drive the plot to an unexpected outcome with an otherworldly feel.

The main character, Oscar, does not make much of an impression; he is more like the host of the drama, the pretext that brings the reader in, than a central figure. As such, he is not especially memorable. I liked the treatment of several secondary characters and an odd subplot, which, however, never really answers all my questions.

In sum, I liked it well enough, and it held my attention through 405 pages despite a number of copyediting lapses, which of course I marked; but I don't consider it a standout.

And I'm always going to hold something back from an author who writes "Woah."

Oscar's life as a care assistant is quiet and ordinary until one day, as he crosses the campus at Cambridge, he hears organ music that pulls him into the chapel. That single act brings him into contact with the Bellwethers: beautiful and interesting, Iris, and her fascinating and intense brother, Eden. Oscar is quickly drawn into the small circle of friends that orbit Eden and learns about Eden's obsession with his theories on music. Essentially, Eden believes that music does not just influence emotions but can actually cause them and that the powers of music are vastly untapped. Suddenly, Oscar is intwined in a strange effort to understand if Eden's powers with music are real or just the delusions of a brilliant mind.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book as I had mostly picked it up because it fit a challenge item and the description sounded halfway decent. Inside this book I found a beautiful, haunting, and, at moments, disturbing book that far exceeded my expectations. Oscar is a wonderful main character, steady but a little uncertain about his path in life, making his being pulled into the Bellwethers' circle so believable. The entire plot is well-structured and while never madly paced, it pulls you along and leaves you keenly interested in what Oscar's life will bring him next. The writing of this book is also beautiful and lyrical, clearly evoking both places and the feelings they provoke. At moments this novel reminded of both Brideshead Revisited and The Great Gatsby for some of its plot elements but the book is in no way a lesser version of either of these classics. A wonderful and lingering read.

Un roman qui ne peut laisser indifférent tant par la qualité de l'écriture de son jeune auteur que par sa maîtrise de l'intrigue et du suspense. Benjamin Wood nous emporte dans l'histoire palpitante d'Eden Bellwether, jeune musicien tout autant craint qu'adulé car on ne sait pas s'il est habité par la folie ou le génie. Si les génies sont peut-être tous un peu fous, l'inverse n'est pas vrai et c'est ici alors que se logent les imposteurs et les pervers. C'est ce que le personnage d'Oscar tentera de découvrir sans se douter que le dénouement, violent et dévastateur, bouleversera plus d'une vie.

Ce roman a reçu très récemment le prix mais j’avais décidé de le lire bien avant car cela se passait à Cambridge, en Angleterre. Je ne peux pas résister à cet argument (Oxford et Cambridge me font rêver, que voulez-vous).

Le roman commence par un prélude, où on sait qu’à la fin du roman, on va avoir deux morts. Comme pour tous les préludes, je n’ai compris que les grandes lignes, vu qu’aucun personnage n’est posé. Mais bon, il y aura deux morts dans l’histoire.

On fait ensuite la connaissance d’Oscar, jeune homme de vingt ans, qui a quitté sa famille à 17 ans car il voulait une autre vie. Son père était ouvrier en bâtiment et pensait que c’était la seule chose qui devait compter pour son fils mais celui-ci aurait préféré un monde plus « intellectuel » et surtout poursuivre des études. Il n’a pas pu le faire et travaille comme aide-soignant dans une maison de retraite cossue. Son patient préféré est Bram Paulsen, avec qui il prend grand plaisir à discuter des livres que celui-ci lui prête. Les livres sont signés Descartes … Un jour, Oscar se promène dans Cambridge et entend une musique provenant d’un Orgue. Cela le pousse à rentrer dans l’église où il y a un office. Il fait la connaissance d’Iris Bellwether dont il tombe immédiatement sous le charme. Le musicien est son frère, Eden. De fil en aiguille, il se lie d’amitié avec le frère et la sœur et leur bande d’amis, bande assez restreinte puisque constitué de trois autres personnes, Jane (la petite-amie d’Eden), Yin et Marcus. Il devient le petit-ami d’Iris, qui lui confie ne pas savoir si son frère est malade ou génial. Il croit pouvoir guérir avec la musique. Benjamin Wood fait de cette question une interrogation majeure de son roman : quel pouvoir a la musique ? Or, le docteur Paulsen lui présente Herbert Crest, psychologue qui s’intéresse au médecine alternative mais aussi aux personnalités hors-norme. Crest est lui-même intéressé par les pouvoirs d’Eden puisqu’il est atteint d’une tumeur au cerveau inguérissable.

Benjamin Wood va, au cours de son roman, s’attacher à décrire le milieu de la famille Bellwether, Iris et Eden avec leurs parents, Theo et Ruth, car c’est très nouveau pour Oscar. La musique est donc aussi très présente dans ce livre et c’est à mon avis une des plus grandes réussites de Benjamin Wood car on sent tout l’intérêt qu’il porte à la chose.

J’ai lu plusieurs avis qui disaient que ce livre avait les maladresses d’un premier roman, ce qu’il est soit dit en passant. Principalement, le livre serait trop long. Je ne comprends jamais très bien cette phrase. Je m’imagine toujours une bonne âme couper certains passages ou bien réécrire complètement l’histoire pour qu’elle soit plus nerveuse. Comme je l’ai dit, j’aime bien les gros romans car on a l’impression de suivre les gens. Je ne me suis pas ennuyée une seconde en lisant ce livre. Par contre, je suis d’accord qu’il y a quelque chose qui ne va pas.

Je pense que c’est une question de point de vue. Toute l’histoire est donc racontée du point de vue d’Oscar. On adopte donc sa vision des choses, puisqu’on n’a que celle-là. J’ai eu l’impression d’être une ethnologue en exploration dans les milieux bourgeois de Cambridge. Par exemple, je n’ai pas ressenti l’amour éprouvé par Oscar pour Iris, je n’ai pas ressenti les liens d’amitié qui se sont soit-disant créés entre Oscar, Eden, Iris, Jane, Marcus, Yin. Je n’ai pas trouvé les personnages particulièrement bien décrits dans le sens où je ne me les imagine pas. Je n’ai ressenti aucun lien d’amitié dans le groupe (avec ou sans Oscar). Le personnage d’Eden reste lui aussi très dans l’ombre car finalement, on n’a pas son point de vue. Selon moi, le livre aurait donc gagné à devenir un roman chorale car là, on n’arrive à comprendre que Oscar. Pour compléter, les liens avec Herbert Crest ou le docteur Paulsen semblent véridiques et sincères, comme ceux avec l’infirmière de Crest, Andrea mais ceux avec les Bellwether … non. Je dis pourquoi pas si c’est ce qu’a voulu faire l’auteur. Je ne suis cependant pas sûre qu’il est voulu faire une sorte de roman ethnologique. Il visait soit le roman psychologique, un peu page-turner, soit le roman d’apprentissage, soit un roman sur le pouvoir de la musique à mon avis, soit un roman sur la folie et les personnalités narcissiques. Il a réussi ces passages sur la musique (les passages où Eden joue de l’orgue sont splendides), sur les pathologies psychiatriques mais pas sur la « vraie vie ». Ce n’est donc pas trop long mais surtout il manque quelque chose. Je pense que pour son deuxième roman il devrait plus s’attacher à ses personnages, amplifier le côté humain.

En résumé, c’est un bon premier roman. C’est un roman ambitieux, qu’on ne peut pas lâcher, en tournant les pages sans relâche mais à mon avis, il manque un petit quelque chose au niveau des personnages.½

I picked this up because of it's seeming parallels with the fabulous [b:The Secret History|29044|The Secret History|Donna Tartt|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327733397s/29044.jpg|221359] by Donna Tartt. Most of the books that claim to be along the lines of Secret History have always somewhat disappointed me. This one however was different ....

This is possibly one of the truest comparable books to Secret History I've encountered. It's very 'classily' written and has a slightly sinister undercurrent which pulls you in nicely and the ending was unexpected AND didn't disappoint me.

The main reason this lost a star for me was it simply took too long to lure me in. I was just under half way through the novel before I got to the 'couldn't put it down' part.

Well worth a read.

Originally posted here, and, until July 9, I have a copy for giveaway there as well.

The Bellwether Revivals begins with one heck of a hook. While most of the chapters are lengthy, it opens with one of two short pages. These pack quite a wallop, though. The reader learns that there are two dead bodies and one nigh dead being carted off by the paramedics. At this point, the readers has no idea what happened, but most definitely wants to know. This technique of a small climactic scene from the end of the book being placed at the opening to create a mystery and tension to push through the novel is certainly popular, but Wood has used it effectively.

My curiosity from those two pages is what propelled me through The Bellwether Revivals. The novel, as a whole, just did not call to me. While it is masterfully written, and will no doubt acquire much critical acclaim, the novel did not speak to me on a personal level. I was bored through most of it, a feeling aided by the incredibly long chapters.

Though I haven't actually read Brideshead Revisited, from what I know of it (having seen two film adaptations), the comparison is apt. On a basic level, The Bellwether Revivals is one of those stories about a poor boy becoming caught up with a fantastically intelligent, beautiful, wealthy family (particularly Iris and Eden Bellwether), and seeing that things aren't necessarily so shiny in their world. This plot line has never really been my favorite, but I think the book will definitely appeal to fans of The Great Gatsby, Brideshead Revisited, and Special Topics in Calamity Physics.

The psychological aspects of the story, more than the wtf happened of the opening, was the most intriguing part of the book to me. I can't talk about it too much without giving anything away, but there are is a lot of psychoanalysis. Additionally, there are some very interesting discussions of faith and its healing powers. On an intellectual, this held much appeal for me.

My difficulty with the story was definitely in the characters. I feel like I complain about this a lot, but, when I read, I read primarily for character. I lose myself in a story through the characters. Although I did sympathize with Oscar's plight somewhat, I couldn't empathize at all, and, in his shoes, I would definitely have run for the hills from this crazy ass family.

The Bellwethers themselves may be charismatic and wealthy, but I just didn't see the attraction they held for him. Well, that's not true. They represented a life he could have been living but wasn't: that of academia. Still, their individual personalities were not at all likeable; they were all very bipolar, very changeable from one moment to the next. The whole friend group was so insular and self-flattering, not to mention pandering endlessly to Eden Bellwether. I was not invested in any of them, which is why finding out which of them did not survive was seriously anticlimactic.

As I said, though, I know others have loved and will love this novel. I would recommend not judging solely off of my opinion. The novel is very well written, but simply not my cup of cocoa.

Very, very awesome. I enjoyed this immensely, and I would definitely recommend it if you're looking for a discussion book - I want to talk about Eden to anyone who'll listen, but no one I know has read the thing, so...

Oscar, Eden, Iris, Cambridge, mad musical delusional Eden

If you say Gothic I am there. I really love an atmospheric English read but this didn't do it for me. A strange meandering plot and characters I couldn't care about sunk this one for me.

Oscar Lowe is a true academic but he can't afford college so he does his studying on the side while he works a nursing home job. He falls for poor little rich girl Iris Bellwether which probably would have been just dandy except for the fact that she has a crazy brother with bit of a cruel streak. Eden Bellwether may or may not be able to physically heal people with music. In any case he suffers from delusions of grandeur. The more Oscar learns about the Bellwether family and friends the more he becomes convinced that "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." Just how rotten he will soon find out. There is also a sub plot involving one of the nursing home patients and his former lover who attempts to evaluate Eden.

The novel just left me cold. There were parts that were interesting but there were more parts that dragged. Another strange thing was that it was set in contemporary times but the way it was written made it seem like it happened in the 1800's. the characters and setting seemed very old fashioned even though there were supposedly in the year 2003. The whole thing might have worked better if it had been written as historical fiction.

On the way home after his shift at the care home where he worked as a nurse's assistant, 20-year-old Oscar Lowe wandered into a chapel on the grounds of Cambridge University one day to listen to the organ music. After the service, as young men often do, he began chatting with an attractive young woman, Iris Bellwether, whose brother Eden was the organist. From such chance meetings do lives change.

Iris and Eden were products of privilege: boarding school, music lessons, prestigious university education, with neither a thought to money nor concept of cost. Oscar's life couldn't have been more different. But his and Iris's mutual attraction transcended the difference in their social backgrounds, and they swiftly fell in love. Iris's and Eden's small group of friends made room in their closed circle for Oscar. Eden, on the other hand, remained aloof, disapproving, with a penchant for insults so subtle Oscar wasn't sure he actually heard them, or if he was being overly sensitive.

Over time, Iris began to confide in Oscar her worries about Eden: the childhood mistreatments, the obsessive behavior, the sheer hubris of his belief that he can heal people through music. Convinced he suffered from a severe psychological disorder, she wondered if there was someone who could help: in secret, of course, because Eden would never willingly subject himself to therapy. Together, she and Oscar came up with a plan to have Eden evaluated, thus setting in motion the beginning of the end, and the tragedy that opens and closes the book.

Benjamin Wood's debut novel is beautifully written, and somewhat reminiscent of Donna Tartt's A Secret History. He captures the opulence and arrogance of the Bellwethers' lifestyle as seen through Oscar's eyes, with echoes of Fitzgerald's "The rich are different" ringing through the prose. The living room at the Bellwether family home had "...the conscious extravagance of a hotel lobby;" Iris's parents "...spent more money on cognac than most people could retire on." Oscar enjoys the luxury of becoming part of this privileged circle, but he is not seduced by it, and in the end, may be the only person who survives relatively undamaged.

Benjamin Wood makes a bold move in his debut novel, The Bellwether Revivals - he begun at the end. When I read the prologue and saw that he was telling the reader what to expect in the end, I was a little curious to see if I’d be able to see through the mystery or not. I was pleasantly surprised with the result.

The Bellwether Revivals is the story of Oscar, a young caregiver at a retirement home in Cambridge, who stumbles across Eden and Iris Bellwether along with their friends, Jane, Marcus and Yin. When Oscar and Iris start dating, he is drawn into the world of the five scholars who tend to stick to themselves. Eden, a gifted musician and composer seems fixated on the idea that he can heal others through his music. Iris, concerned for her brother’s welfare, enlists Oscar’s assistance in helping her brother.

The first thing I noticed about this book was the amount of research that went into the story. It’s sometimes easy to dump so much information on a reader that it becomes overwhelming, however, the author’s decision to allow the reader to gain information through multiple ways - newspaper clippings, dialogue about books, or even simple dialogue explaining theories - worked well together and I never felt overwhelmed by the new information.

While there were a lot of foreign concepts for me - music and hypnotism with a bit of psychology - the prose had an easy flow to it that allowed for the story – though rather dense with detail – to be a quick read. I found it to be well paced and engaging, even though we were told what to expect in the ending. There were lots of great quotes in this book, and even the things that I didn’t necessarily agree with were interesting to ponder.

Primarily, what I loved about this story was the fact that it seemed so realistic that I wouldn’t have been surprised if I looked up the Bellwethers and found articles about them on the internet. Even the minor characters were so well fleshed out that, as a reader, I found myself wanting to know more about what happened to them.

If you love a smart mystery, a book that makes you think, then The Bellwether Revivals is the book for you.

[ARC via Penguin; many thanks]