I picked this off the shelf at the library purely because I liked the spine, the cover and the story description. It reads a bit like a first novel with some rookie mistakes like repetitive usage of words and phrases and the sex drive of the protagonist is blatantly wish-fulfillment-y, but overall wasn’t terrible. I do have to say one thing to writers though - if you’re going to make your main character a completely different nationality from yours, get the details right. Especially how they talk. And even more especially Brits with an American character. My American born and raised sister and brother in law lived in England for years and I never heard them use a Britishism in place of an American term. Not once. In my experience people don’t just lose a lifetime of language overnight. Language is formed early and is pretty hard wired after that. Oh sure now and then I think a term will get thrown in because a person can become absorbed in a time and place; immersion I think they call it, but to replace an entire vocabulary? I don’t think so. Instead writers, make your character one you understand. Especially if his or her nationality has no bearing on the story.

In this book we have an American woman (Mary) who marries a Brit (Gregory) relatively late in life. She doesn’t think or speak in the least like an American despite being raised in New York, going to college in New York and working for a New York-based book publisher. After Gregory’s sudden death she finds that he wasn’t the man she thought he was. The hints, clues and connections in the book are delivered well and the pacing is good. It’s not an action-driven book and I think the writer made Mary too weepy and eaten by self-doubt. She constantly thinks other people think she’s crazy and she cries way too damn much. But the way the plot comes together and resolves is satisfying. Of course everything is connected to everything else and the cover up is pretty thick. It was fun, but I kept getting distracted by how non-American Mary was. There wasn’t any reason to make her one.

Things an American would really say -

We don’t have them (We’ve not got them)
Trash bags (dusbin liners)
Dishes (crockery)
Boxes (cartons)
Mothballs (naptha)
Bag/Duffel/tote bag (holdall)
What nerve (what cheek)
Liquor cabinet (drinks cupboard)
Bottle of perfume (bottle of scent)
two -lane road (dual carriageway)
Make decisions (take decisions)
Tylenol (paracetamol) ( )