Somerville's The Cradle was outstanding. It was humorous, complex, and heartwarming. He was hitting on all cylinders in that one.

This one is a little different flavor due to a few missing cylinders. In my case I might be a little more picky due to just having read Gone Girl in which both man and woman were extremely well-written. Somerville writes for a woman in this one and those are the portions where the writing suffers. The worst section is about 2/3 of the way through.

Having said that it's still a human tale with complex characters and a few laugh-out-loud moments. He didn't wrap things up in a nice little bow. Instead he stopped, and started, his telling at appropriate points.

Recommended for anyone who likes good stories about flawed people.

I gave it a 6.5/10 on my personal scale.

-tpl