The Unwilling, by John Hart (review by Tony Park)

 

Wow.

Just bloody wow.

You know what it's like when  you want to read a book, but you've read everything your favourite authors have written, and there's nothing new from them on the horizon?

I was in that terrible place when one of my readers, Bruce, in the US, messaged me on Facebook and suggested - in fact, practically ordered - that I try 'The Unwilling' by John Hart. I'd never heard of him and I'm rarely sold on other people's recommendations. Bruce, however, added another line to his message: "if you don't like it, I'll cover your costs".

Big call, I thought, and then, wow.

When I say I was hooked from the start, I am talking walking-down-the-footpath-still-reading-bumping-into-pedestrians-and-lamppost addiction.

Jason French is a recently-released convict and Vietnam veteran, returning to his home in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1972. Jason's twin brother, Robert, was killed in the war and his younger brother, Gibby, has just finished high school and has his draft notice.

Jason's carrying terrible (horrific, actually) secrets from both the war and jail and though he wants to shield Gibby from both, a world of hurt comes hurtling towards the French brothers.  Jason falls foul of the law again (to make matters worse their dad is a detective), and Gibby and his misfit school friend have to turn amateur-sleuths.

This book has it all. There's family drama and a charmingly-penned fledgling romance between Gibby and the smartest, prettiest, poorest girl in school.

There's a baddy, who makes Hannibal Lector look like the Dalai Lama, and a henchman who pushed me to the limit of what I could take as a reader, vis-a-vis violence and scariness.  I don't like horror books and while I do like writing and reading a good shoot-em-up I have a low tolerance for gratuitous gore.  It's the skill of John Hart that he could take me there, to the edge of my limits, and keep me turning the pages (and bumping into people).

Most of all there is beautiful writing.

Former-lawyer Hart is that rarest of cats in the world of authors - someone who can create narrative, dialogue and description to make a literary snob swoon, and yet still produce a cracking good yarn.

Thank you, Bruce, who recommended John Hart to me. Your money is safe, buddy.

Six out of five.

Published by St Martin's Press and Pan Macmillan

Reviewed by Tony Park