Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “No Good Brother” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

No Good Brother

Tyler Keevil

3.82 · Rating details · 89 ratings · 30 reviews

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE 2018

The Coen Brothers meets Patrick deWitt in this glorious novel from award-winning author Tyler Keevil: a high-stakes adventure of love, loss and morality, introducing two unlikely outlaws…

Tim Harding has spent the fishing season in Canada working as a deckhand, making an honest living. When his hot-headed younger ...more

Get A Copy

Hardcover, 400 pages

Published February 22nd 2018 by The Borough Press

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about No Good Brother, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about No Good Brother

Lists with This Book

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Best Dark Humor

641 books — 1,719 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.82 ·

Rating details

· 89 ratings · 30 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of No Good Brother

Feb 05, 2018 Maureen rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley

Tim Harding is a deckhand working out of Canada - it's the end of the fishing season and he's looking forward to some downtime - that is until his brother Jake turns up. Jake insists that Tim meets him that very night, and tells him that it has to be tonight or not at all. Jake's a hothead, an ex-con, who drifts from one disaster to another, and the death of their sister Sandra some years ago has also coloured the way he looks at life, and dictates his behaviour to a great extent. Sandra was kil ...more

flag 146 likes · Like · see review

May 05, 2018 Peter rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley, literary-fiction, crime, thriller

Brotherhood
Your brother walks up to you and says “I’m in a terrible spot with some really bad people. Will you help me?” You say “Is this illegal?” and your brother says “Yes, but if we don’t do it, they’ll kill me.” What do you do? Are loyalty and brotherhood more important than lawfulness? I suppose it also depends on what the request is, and who’s asking? Tyler Keevil has written a really skilful and entertaining book that weaves suspense, sharp dialogues and some very hilarious situations in Brotherhood
Your brother walks up to you and says “I’m in a terrible spot with some really bad people. Will you help me?” You say “Is this illegal?” and your brother says “Yes, but if we don’t do it, they’ll kill me.” What do you do? Are loyalty and brotherhood more important than lawfulness? I suppose it also depends on what the request is, and who’s asking? Tyler Keevil has written a really skilful and entertaining book that weaves suspense, sharp dialogues and some very hilarious situations into this novel, to explore that conundrum.

In this book, Jake walks up to Tim and says “I’m in a terrible spot with some really bad people, will you help me?” Tim has a future with his current job (the first one in such as long long time), he’s seen as part of the owner family business and he’s involved in a relationship with their daughter. Of course, he has no real choice, it’s his No Good Brother. The brothers talk, laugh and fight, and it is very clear that their underlying relationship is very strong, especially as past family incidents bolster their closeness, such as the loss of their sister, and their Mum recovering from a stroke and requires constant care. Tyler does a great job creating that dynamic between siblings, their underlying closeness and the bonds that exist.

Jake has spent time in jail, and while incarcerated received favours from the Delaney Brothers' gang. Now comes the payback, and he must steal a racehorse in Canada and deliver it to the Delaney ranch in the United States. As if that’s not enough they are stealing the horse from the Triads. Tim and Jake, have no experience in smuggling across borders, and absolutely none with respect to horses and how they are handled. Their lack of horse knowledge is hilariously crafted in a scene where they first encounter the racehorse Shenzao and need to get it into the van. To crown it all off, it’s caught on CCTV and goes viral.

“Neither of us could quite believe that we’d done it. We’d made asses of ourselves and we’d made a lot of noise, but we had the horse in the van.”

Racehorses are treated with utmost care and what starts the journey as a highly groomed prima donna horse, ends as a bedraggled mare.

It is really engrossing and entertaining following the brothers through their journey and across an international border. Shenzao hasn’t finished upsetting their plans as it is unbelievably difficult to keep a horse quiet while stuck inside a van or boat. It’s also not without its murder and violence to add to the drama and suspense.

A wonderful read that I’d happily recommend to those that love a crime thriller mixed with humour and the importance of love and loyalty.

Many thanks to HarperCollins UK Publishing and NetGalley, for an ARC version of the book in return for an honest review. ...more

flag 44 likes · Like · see review

Feb 18, 2018 Louise Wilson rated it really liked it

Tim Harding has spent the fishing season in Canada working as a deckhand, making an honest living. His hot headed younger brother tracks him down at the shipyards in Vancouver. Tim senses trouble. Jake is a drifter, a dreamer, an ex-con, and now he needs help in repaying a debt to the notorious Delaney gang.

We learn the brothers have lost their sister, Sandy, to a drunk driver. The consequences of her death casts a shadow on her brothers lives. Jake owes a debt to the Delaney brothers and persua ...more

flag 38 likes · Like · see review

Jan 17, 2018 Nigel rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley, arc

In brief - This is an easy read which I found enjoyable. Think of the phrase "what could possibly go wrong with this plan" and you'll get a clue about how the brothers' fare in their activities. A solid 4 for me.

This is the story of Tim (AKA Poncho) and Jake (AKA Lefty) his "no good brother". Tim has spent the season on a fishing boat in Canada. Jake, ex con, turns up at the shipyard in Vancouver to see his big brother. He doesn't really need help from Tim for anything dishonest honest... The st ...more

flag 18 likes · Like · see review

Sep 05, 2018 Andrew Smith rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley

As the title suggests, this tale is about a brother who has had his share of troubles. We learn that he’s been ‘inside’ and that as a result of some protection received during his time served he now owes a debt of gratitude to a local gang of hoodlums. And this is where the good brother comes in. Jake (the bad one) seeks out Tim as he returns from a commercial fishing trip. We soon learn two things:

1) The brothers still mourn the death of their sister who was killed, some years ago, in a car cr ...more

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Mar 03, 2018 Liz rated it liked it

Shelves: funny, netgalley, horses, satire

If you would like to experience good storytelling, then pick up a copy of No Good Brother and allow Tim Harding, the older brother of Jake, tell you exactly what happened… No Good Brother is an interesting mix of thrilling, at times dangerous, adventure delivered through the prism of humour. Tim and Jake are an example of brothers where, as individuals, one is the voice of reason and the other is a magnet for trouble. Put these two together and a number of things can happen- sometimes the voice If you would like to experience good storytelling, then pick up a copy of No Good Brother and allow Tim Harding, the older brother of Jake, tell you exactly what happened… No Good Brother is an interesting mix of thrilling, at times dangerous, adventure delivered through the prism of humour. Tim and Jake are an example of brothers where, as individuals, one is the voice of reason and the other is a magnet for trouble. Put these two together and a number of things can happen- sometimes the voice of reason wins over, sometimes the ties are cut… Tim and Jake together- well, they could create month’s worth of material for America’s Funniest Home Videos. There was quite a few laugh out loud moments for me…

Sneaking off felt shady and dishonest but those were feelings I generally associated with my brother, and any plan of his which involved me.

No human being is alike, even when it comes to siblings and it is so that the older brother Tim gets sucked into Jake’s shenanigans. Since a tragic life-changing moment in the brothers’ lives, their paths went in opposite directions. Tim went and got a job on a boat, Jake went and got himself landed in prison. Now Jake is back and he needs to pay back some favours to the Delaney gang. Tim, being the big brother that he is, naturally wants to help Jake even though I kind of felt there was some serious guilt-tripping involved.

No Good Brother really delivers on what it promises. An epic adventure headlining two brothers, a quality racehorse, a boat, border control, hen party and the dangerous Delaney gang. As I would not want to ruin the surprise element for any potential readers, I can only say that my imagination failed my expectations- what the two brothers get mixed into is, frankly put, mental! And yet, no matter how unbelievably crazy the story gets, the beauty of this book lies in the author’s ability to set the scenes through Tim’s storytelling. Wrapped into an observant and descriptive prose, the trek across land and sea is peppered with as much tension as it is with comic relief…

The truth is, my loyalty to my brother was so strong that I would have gone along with pretty much any plan, no matter how dumb or foolhardy or crazy, no matter what.

Loyalties and laws are broken as the two brothers journey to pay back a debt to the Delaney gang, and as they aim to do just that- pay a debt- Tim and Jake reminisce about their family’s tragic past and discover some unexpected truths which add a new level of risk and fear to the already dangerous situation.

What can I say- it was an interesting book. I laughed and at times groaned at the brothers’ silliness; mostly I enjoyed the descriptions which helped set the scenes. It was one of those books that allowed me to sit back and relax without having to think too much. There’s no mystery, there’s no who dunnit, there’s no hidden agendas… it’s a straightforward adventure beefed up with one of the most dynamic brotherly relationships to prove that blood is always thicker than water and family always comes first, no matter how hopeless a situation will get. ...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Feb 28, 2018 Neil rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018

I was both attracted and intrigued by this book’s description on NetGalley (my thanks to the publisher for a free copy in exchange for an honest review). It says, "The Coen Brothers meets Patrick deWitt". I am a fan of both The Coen Brothers’ movies and Patrick deWitt’s novels, so that’s two names that will pull me in. But the intrigue comes from the fact that, for me, there isn’t really any difference between the two apart from one being films and the other being books. It’s like saying "water I was both attracted and intrigued by this book’s description on NetGalley (my thanks to the publisher for a free copy in exchange for an honest review). It says, "The Coen Brothers meets Patrick deWitt". I am a fan of both The Coen Brothers’ movies and Patrick deWitt’s novels, so that’s two names that will pull me in. But the intrigue comes from the fact that, for me, there isn’t really any difference between the two apart from one being films and the other being books. It’s like saying "water meets ice": when the two come together, you don’t get anything different, just more of the same! I was intrigued to see if I could spot what what was Coen Brothers and what was deWitt (spoiler alert: I couldn’t, really).

No Good Brother tells the story of brothers Tim and Jake Harding. Jake has been in prison and owes a favour to some people he met there. It turns out the favour involves stealing a horse and taking it on a bizarre journey. I am guessing that the deWitt reference comes from The Sisters Brothers which is also about two brothers on a journey. And the bizarre journey has a hint of movies like Fargo or O, Brother Where Art Thou. So, perhaps the comparison makes some kind of sense. The trouble is, from my perspective, it sets the bar very high and the book did not live up to it.

It is an established literary technique to give away the ending at the start of the book and then work towards it with the reader knowing what is going to happen. Recently, I read Lullaby which does exactly that. It is a technique that needs to be used carefully, though, because, obviously, it removes one source of tension from the narrative right from the beginning. This book is careful to keep reminding us that it is heading towards a violent ending and it repeatedly warns us that things are going to go wrong along the way. It doesn’t tell us what those things are, but it rapidly becomes clear what kind of book it is, so it becomes relatively simple to guess what is likely to happen. For example, by the time the pair get onto a boat, I found it impossible to think other than that they were going to get caught in a storm and have a near miss with another boat. Both of which they did. It’s that kind of book. When you know what is coming, you need something else to engage you and I didn't find that here because I didn't really get to know the main characters and there wasn't any other source of narrative tension.

It wasn’t a bad book, but I did not feel it lived up to the comparison with two of my favourite film makers and an author whose books I really enjoy. I liked Sam, though. ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Mar 08, 2018 Sean rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction

This book is excellent. read it. it's a page turner with a bunch of zany action and a tender, touching underside, real meaning, so rare. I loved it ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jul 16, 2020 Diane Law rated it really liked it

A story of family loyalty.

I found the book, told in the first person, was well written and engaging - starting off slowly and building to a big crescendo.

You really got to know the main characters but I was exasperated at how they could consistently make such bad decisions. It was probably meant to be funny but I just found it to be frustrating.

I enjoyed that it took place in and around Vancouver.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 02, 2018 James rated it really liked it

If this novel is ever made into a movie, it will be called a road movie of sorts. For that’s what No Good Brother is, a road movie of a novel. Tim Harding works as a deckhand on a fishing trawler. Come the end of the fishing season, the crew are washing down the ship and stowing away the equipment when Tim’s brother, Jake, shows up. Jake is an ex con, a drifter, and a dreamer, a man who tends to slide from trouble to trouble.

Jake tells Tim that he needs help repaying a debt. Tim senses that no g If this novel is ever made into a movie, it will be called a road movie of sorts. For that’s what No Good Brother is, a road movie of a novel. Tim Harding works as a deckhand on a fishing trawler. Come the end of the fishing season, the crew are washing down the ship and stowing away the equipment when Tim’s brother, Jake, shows up. Jake is an ex con, a drifter, and a dreamer, a man who tends to slide from trouble to trouble.

Jake tells Tim that he needs help repaying a debt. Tim senses that no good will come from him agreeing to go along with his brother, but Jake is nothing if not good at manipulating his older brother and tugging on his heart strings. This is especially true because their sister, Sandy, the anchor who held their family together, died in a hit and run a few years back. The loss of Sandy left the brother’s bereft and Tim believes Jake wouldn’t have gone so off the rails if it wasn’t for her death.

So it isn’t long before Tim, against his better judgement, agrees to assist. Jake tells Tim the job is just a simple one, that to repay his debt they have to drop something off for the Delaney’s, a violent crime family. Tim reckons on the job being a drug drop or something similar and is alarmed to learn that it is in fact to steal and transport a race horse. What’s more, they have to transport the horse across the international border, from Canada to the United States. So begins a madcap journey across country, the brothers first trying to transport the horse by land, before stealing the boat Jake worked on and transporting it by sea.

No Good Brother is a novel of many levels. On the surface, it is a crime novel: the brothers commit a crime, the stealing and transferring of a horse, and there is a gang of violent criminals pulling their strings. On a broader level it is a journey, a tale of two men travelling the ocean. I have zero nautical knowledge, but the author seems to know his stuff; the book is packed with information on how Tim sails the boat and navigates the open sea. This isn’t info dumped, but rather perfectly calculated to the tale, so that the author spins what feels to be an authentic story. There’s a real sense of the environment the brothers find themselves in, a sense of place if you will, the ocean brought to life. But so too is Canada. If like myself readers haven’t visited the country, it’s easy to imagine the picture postcard vision: forests, bears, Mounties and Maple syrup. Here is a grittier Canada of working class men scraping by, dive bars and violence.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this is a story about relationships. Road movies and their novel counterparts are about personal growth, the characters’ internal journeys mirroring the external, as they learn something important about themselves. No Good Brother is no exception and the brothers, their relationship rocky at the outset, learn some hard truths and gain insights, some not too welcome, into each other and their shared histories.

I thoroughly enjoyed No Good Brother and Tyler Keevil is an impressive and talented writer. One of the reasons I review books is for the opportunity to find new authors whose work I can enjoy and this is one such author. I will definitely be checking out his back catalogue. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jun 22, 2018 Ella (The Story Collector) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller, crime

When Tim’s ex-con brother, Jake, turns up asking for his help, he knows it’s not going to be entirely legal. What he’s not expecting is to be roped into stealing a racehorse and smuggling it across the border from Canada to America. What follows is an unpredictable, unforgettable journey, with a shocking discovering awaiting them at the end.

I love Tyler Keevil’s writing. His stories are whacky and crazy, but completely believable at the same time. No Good Brother is written from Tim’s perspectiv ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Apr 26, 2020 Chuck Slack rated it liked it

Entertaining.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 10, 2018 Colette Lamberth rated it really liked it

Well that was quite a journey. Younger brother Jake has a plan to repay a debt and against his first instinct Tim agrees to help him. What follows is part laugh out loud comedy and part tragedy and the many revisions to their plan made ‘on the hoof’ make for a journey full of adventure. Essentially it’s an examination of the relationship between the brothers and how it holds up under pressure and anyone with siblings will be able to relate.
My thanks to the Borough Press for the ARC received via ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 21, 2018 Susan Foulkes rated it liked it

3.5*

I struggled with this book at first as it was depressing and bleak at the beginning, as were the lives of Tim and Jake.

I don't think I've ever read such a miserable description of Vancouver, but it certainly sets the scene for what ensues.

The lives of Tim and Jake have been coloured by the death of theirs sister, Sandy, to a drunk driver.
Tim is taciturn, Jake has gone off the rails....but they are brothers, so they help each other.

What follows does lighten the tone of the book as we are intr ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 07, 2019 Tom Mooney rated it really liked it

This was a hell of a lot of fun. Like a modern day western, this wild tale manages to be both a great adventure, a tender story of brotherly love and at times absolutely hilarious.
Reads like a mix of Patrick deWitt, Annie Proulx and Johnny Cash. My only reservation is that it's a teeny bit long, maybe could have been 50 or 60 pages shorter.
Still, it's great adventure writing. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 21, 2018 Douglas Osler rated it liked it

This book goes on a bit in the middle although the early and later chapters are good. The relationship between the brothers is well done. The story is s bit Wild West!

flag 1 like · Like · see review

May 01, 2019 Andrew rated it liked it

Half analysis and half review

No Good Brother finds itself necessarily in the unfortunate position of having to be compared to Keevil's excellent debut novel Fireball and its equally excellent followup The Drive. Several years removed from reading either of those novels, what I most recall from the former is the emotional impact of the story and the framing of it. I don't so much remember the little vignettes showing Chris and Razor's relationship as much as why those vignettes mattered, and what Half analysis and half review

No Good Brother finds itself necessarily in the unfortunate position of having to be compared to Keevil's excellent debut novel Fireball and its equally excellent followup The Drive. Several years removed from reading either of those novels, what I most recall from the former is the emotional impact of the story and the framing of it. I don't so much remember the little vignettes showing Chris and Razor's relationship as much as why those vignettes mattered, and what they led to. For The Drive, it's pretty much the opposite. I can see the vignettes clear as day, but the reason why they mattered, what Trevor was driving away from, that doesn't come back as clearly. A breakup? There was more too it than that, I'm sure.

I mention it because at times it feels like No Good Brother threads the needle between that difference in narrative emphasis. Jake and Tim certainly have a Chris and Razor-esque relationship, in that they're both more devoted to each other than anyone else. If the title doesn't make it clear enough, the story never once pretends this isn't actually a tale of two brothers, adventures in smuggling aside. So despite those adventures taking place almost as a series of short stories, each wholly separate from each other, as in The Drive, the emotionality is much closer in tone to Fireball.

In the end, I preferred both of them to No Good Brother. There's a lot said in the novel about the unbreakable bonds of family, and what people are willing to do for their family. But I've never gotten on board with characters like Jake, who's mere presence seem to be endless sources of negative consequences for those they love, but still expect and demand their unconditional support. Chris and Razor's relationship had shades of this, but it gets a pass for two reasons. One is that they're young and such imbalanced relationships are a lot more common among youths; roles are often clearly delineated, one leads, one follows. The second is that Chris offered Razor something he otherwise lacked. Physical protection, yes, but more it was a place to belong. Almost ephemeral, but Chris grounded Razor's sense of self. I'm not sure that's the case for Tim. Tim has a place to belong, it's implied he may eventually marry the daughter of the captain of the fishing vessel he's working on. He thinks of them as family. Jake comes and disrupts that, guilting Tim into abandoning and hurting his family and says if they won't forgive him then they weren't actually family in the end. Tim ends up agreeing. I'm not sure I do. It's not a minor complaint when family bonds is the overarching theme of the novel.

Still, it's not a bad read by any means. From a relatively sedate beginning, once the plot kicks in, it never lets up, bludgeoning the brothers with outrageous setback after setback. Half the fun is waiting to see what ridiculous plan Jake and Tim will come up with next. Usually, when a book blurb describes a story as 'funny' I get suspicious, because reviewer's guesses on what will make me laugh are usually well off the mark. But for what it's worth, the book is funny and I did laugh. Keevil absolutely nails the overall tone, expertly navigating the plot's events so that all the emotional beats hit home, while the funny moments, mere paragraphs later, stick the landing.

And though I raised an issue about the emotional heart of the novel earlier, in the last third of the book, the last few characters slot into place and the story really hits its stride. When the brothers finally meet up with Maria, we can see the loss of Sandy all the more clearly. Her absence is reflected in the broken pieces of the characters we've spent this journey with. And the way this is resolved makes a lot sense in the context of the novel. Even if I was able to see that resolution coming like a storm on a clear day.

If I were being reductive, I'd call this an inferior Fireball, but that would be unfair. It's trying to do something different. It wasn't my favorite book by any means, but I didn't hate my time with it. And if you told me this was your easy favorite of the three, I would totally understand why. ...more

flag Like · see review

Jul 25, 2018 Kathryn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

No Good Brother gets off to a leisurely start as we see the boat Tim crews on winding down after the herring season. You get a real sense of how important this boat is to the family business which operates it and how the crew works together like a family, whether they’re related by blood or not. Tim’s made himself invaluable as a crew member and is being coaxed into becoming a more permanent part of the actual family at the heart of it.

Which is when his younger brother, Jake, turns up and things No Good Brother gets off to a leisurely start as we see the boat Tim crews on winding down after the herring season. You get a real sense of how important this boat is to the family business which operates it and how the crew works together like a family, whether they’re related by blood or not. Tim’s made himself invaluable as a crew member and is being coaxed into becoming a more permanent part of the actual family at the heart of it.

Which is when his younger brother, Jake, turns up and things take a detour out to sea and across the border… It’s easy to see Jake as the No Good Brother of the title but once Tim has (admittedly reluctantly) agreed to help his brother and they get underway, he often seems the more incorrigible of the two and the one that’s driving the action forward, making it harder to turn back and attempt any form of reparation or escape the almost certain punishment or worse that awaits them. They are despite their differences, both as bad as each other which is perhaps what’s meant by No Good Brother.

Even without knowing about their past shared sorrow, I think I would have championed this pair of scoundrels though. I couldn’t help but warm to them: I laughed at each madcap episode, while also willing them to get away with it. Especially when they come up against more sinister forces in the book. This is no doubt helped by spending time with them as well as what they find once they cross the border, and how they react to it. And a hat tip here to Tyler Keevil’s fresh take on the rescuer on a white horse trope.

If you enjoyed Patrick deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers, I think you’ll like No Good Brother. It feels like a good buddy road trip movie in book form except they’re brothers, most of the time they’re at sea in a boat and, even when they are on land, their transport is more off-road than on. No Good Brother is a wonderful, wild ride of a read: packed full of emotion and brotherly love, moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity alongside those of real danger. Loved it. ...more

flag Like · see review

Jan 31, 2018 Graham McGhie rated it really liked it

Two Brothers Storm the Great Lakes in style - a gripping read:
The fourth novel by award winning author, Tyler Keevil, introduces us to the hapless Harding Brothers: Jake and Timothy (or Lefty and Poncho, to use their nicknames). The Hardings lost their sister, Sandy, to a Drunk Driver just as her Dancing career was taking off. The consequences of her death still casts a dark shadow on the lives of her surviving siblings and is the spark for a madcap agreement by Jake to steal a prize racehorse a ...more

flag Like · see review

Feb 03, 2018 Maggie rated it it was amazing

No Good Brother is a wonderful read. Tim is a deckhand on a fishing boat in Canada, just as the season ends his brother Jake turns up at the dock wanting Tim's help with a job, Jake is a drifter and has served a jail sentence, full of ideas that never pan out and now in debt to the notorious and vicious Delaney brothers, and economical with the truth when persuading Tim to help him.
So starts an epic journey across land and sea with almost unbelievable moments of danger, slapstick comedy and path ...more

flag Like · see review

Apr 28, 2018 Dan rated it it was amazing

The last Tyler Keevil novel I read was his phantasmagorical road trip The Drive, which I hugely enjoyed. This is a different beast, one much more grounded in reality, but it's just as good a read. Our narrator is a fisherman, working a difficult but above board life until his brother, out of jail and involved with some gangsters, shows up needing his help....that's all the plot description you're going to get, because the twists, turns and reveals of the novel are half the fun. Basically, if you ...more

flag Like · see review

Aug 20, 2018 Glenn Carmichael rated it it was amazing

Two Canadian brothers.
One has served time in prison and owes the gang, that protected him while inside, a favour. They call in the favour and ask him to steal a racehorse from a Canadian stable and deliver it to the gang’s boss’ ranch in the United States.
The story is told by the other brother - the good brother, and from page one we know we’re in for a fast-paced heist drama, where the big event has already happened.
This story is expertly written by Tyler Keevil. Well drawn characters, a brilli ...more

flag Like · see review

Sep 02, 2018 Catherine Laing rated it it was amazing

I thoroughly enjoyed No Good Brother - it had me hooked from start to finish, and as I approached the end I slowed down because I didn’t want it to be over too soon. It made me laugh out loud, and I also cried during one of the earlier chapters; I found the two main characters very absorbing and got easily carried away with their escapades.

But what captured me most was the relationship between the two brothers. I have a younger brother myself, and much of what they go through in the novel is re ...more

flag Like · see review

May 08, 2018 Daniel Stern rated it liked it

struggled with this book at first as it was depressing and bleak at the beginning, as were the lives of Tim and Jake.

I don't think I've ever read such a miserable description of Vancouver, but it certainly sets the scene for what ensues.

The lives of Tim and Jake have been coloured by the death of theirs sister, Sandy, to a drunk driver.
Tim is taciturn, Jake has gone off the rails....but they are brothers, so they help each other.

What follows does lighten the tone of the book as we are introduced ...more

flag Like · see review

Aug 29, 2020 Susan rated it liked it

I found this a little annoying initially - a bit like 'Dumb and Dumber' as the two brothers blundered from one ridiculous situation to the next.

After about half way and certainly towards the end I began to feel some empathy for the brothers who had had an unhappy youth and struggled to come to terms with their sister's death.

Tim, the 'good 'brother is willing to sacrifice everything to try and keep his brother, Jake safe. He
also cares for his mother who is mentally ill and sned money as well a ...more

flag Like · see review

Dec 10, 2019 Pamela Scott rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: first-read, amazon-vine, tyler-keevil

https://thebookloversboudoir.wordpres...

I didn’t know what to expect from this book as I’d never heard of the book or author before. So I had no expectations. Which can be a good thing. This is the kind of book you can get swept up in and sucked right into. I really enjoyed the way the author explores the brotherly relationship between Tim and Jake. The book involves a long, sometimes devastating journey by land and sea. The novel combines humour, farce and sadness to make a unique reading exper ...more

flag Like · see review

May 27, 2018 Vontel added it

Read the first couple of chapters or so, decided to flip to end, read last chapter or so & decided not to read the rest of the book. I was drawn to the book because of its west coast connection, and fishing, but the story just didn't grab me enough to persist. It certainly touched on a lot of challenging relationship issues. Maybe another time I might have seen it differently, but not today. I haven't read any of the author's previous books. ...more

flag Like · see review

May 22, 2018 Pamela rated it really liked it

What a couple of haywire, loveable characters!!
A very well written and quite enjoyable story. It was cool that the setting took place in the Vancouver area and I recognized so many names and places.

flag Like · see review

Aug 13, 2018 Rebecca rated it really liked it

Shelves: first-reads

Goodreads First Reads*

I really enjoyed this stories of brothers!
It was fast paced and entertaining.

Recommend

flag Like · see review

May 18, 2018 Matthew Tett rated it really liked it

I loved this from the outset and found Keevil's writing quite different to other novels I would choose to read - but exciting as well. This is a suspenseful thriller about two Canadian brothers, Tim and Jake Harding, and the crime they get caught up in as they travel from Vancouver to Olympia, Oregon. ...more

flag Like · see review

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Thriller

2 users

Mystery > Crime

2 users

See top shelves…

About Tyler Keevil

Tyler Keevil

23 followers

Tyler was raised in Vancouver, Canada. He first came to the UK in 1999 to study English at Lancaster University. He returned home to finish his degree, and after graduating undertook a variety of bizarre jobs, working as a treeplanter, a landscape gardener, a deckhand on a fishing barge, a ‘greenhorn’ in the shipyards, a restaurant busser and a kayak shop assistant. After paying back his student l ...more