Jimmy was cold, paralyzingly cold, and sticky wet above the waist. Blood soaked his sweater, churned in his throat, filled his lungs. He tried to move, to turn onto his back, but an iron bar of pain held him in place. Circling above like seagulls’ squawks were voices discussing, with maddening dispassion, whether he was alive or dead. None of them tried to help. Why would they. To be rid of him was their dearest wish.
London, 1953. In Emma Garman’s The Kindness of Strangers, an eclectic assortment of lodgers live in the old Victorian house owned by the widow Mrs. Honor Wilson.
Robbie, 32, loiters on the fringe of the literary world, but wishes for more. George, 25, an artist’s model and debutante, is pregnant, but she’s not sure by whom. Mina, 17, works at a local cinema, attends a local charm school, and is intent on a glamorous career or a rich husband, whichever comes first. And Saul, a refugee and poet in his 40s, handsome, well-dressed, Jewish, has never gotten over being separated from his family during the war, though that hasn’t stopped him from having an affair with Honor.
The lodgers don’t realize it, but there is a reason Honor has selected each of them to live in her house. She knows their secrets (or thinks she does). Some of their secrets are from their past. Some of them are very much in their present. Few of them would look good in the open air.
That is why it’s so disturbing when a young man named Jimmy Sullivan moves into the house with them and starts vigorously stirring the pot. A flustered Honor claims he’s a family friend, but he certainly doesn’t act like a friend. What hold does he have over Honor? Why is he poking around in all their lives? Something must be done.
As you can tell by now, something very much is done, though by whom is not immediately clear. The only thing that is clear is that they will have to dispose of the body themselves. No one else must know.
That doesn’t mean their troubles are over, however. Jimmy may be dead, but his past isn’t. There are so many more secrets to be uncovered, not only about him, but about all of them. Many surprises await.
For you, too.
The Kindness of Strangers has already been drawing comparisons to Agatha Christie, Kate Atkinson, Richard Osman, even Alfred Hitchcock, but it is a book that is gloriously its own, one filled with twists, dark humor, and characters in a constant state of revelation. You’ll gulp it all down – and then wait impatiently for Emma Garman’s next book.
To read more of Neil’s review and discussion with Emma Garmen, go here.
