Half Broken Things
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the CWA Silver Dagger Award: A desire for a home can drive people to do things that they never thought possible
Family is a powerful force. It's only when you don't have one that you realize how strong the bonds truly are. Michael, Jean, and Steph all have learned this the hard way. Michael, abandoned as a child, steals from churches just to make ends meet in his low-rent apartment. Jean lives as a lonely caretaker, watching over vast houses while their rich owners are away. Steph is pregnant and trapped in an abusive relationship. However, in an instant, a life can change forever.
When Steph leaves her boyfriend, she finds a home and then a family with Michael, who is overjoyed. Meanwhile, Jean grows more and more comfortable in her current residence, taking proxy ownership rather than facing mandatory retirement. She begins telling stories of a son and soon places an ad in search of one. When Michael realizes what she is up to, he and Steph move in with her, and the three form an ad-hoc family. But reality is never far in this familial fantasy, and it is about to come calling.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British author Joss's brilliantly conceived, finely executed novel, which captured the CWA's Silver Dagger Award, offers psychological suspense of the highest order. The catalyst for a trio of misfits is Jean, a 64-year-old housesitter on the verge of forced retirement. Her last assignment is lengthy: nine months alone at an isolated country house, Walden Manor, whose wealthy owners are abroad for an extended stay. Jean's first casual liberties with the house are almost accidental. Then, as she begins to think of the place as home, she becomes bolder. She welcomes Michael, a middle-aged, less-than-successful thief, who becomes her "lost" son, and the pregnant, unmarried and abused Steph, who becomes her daughter-in-law. In Joss's capable hands, these three lonely losers begin to craft a family life. Even as they use another's property to do so, they're as appealing as they are appalling. How long will their idyll last? How far will they go to preserve it? What crimes are too great? This is a must-read. Joss is also the author of the Sara Selkirk mystery series (Fruitful Bodies, etc.).
