Broken Country by Clare Leslie HallMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review
The farmer is dead, he is dead and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.
Broken Country was the story of Mess, told in literary style and awash in melodrama. It centers on Beth, a young woman that grew up in the English countryside and how the decisions she makes shapes and twists her life. Told in five parts (four named for the males in her life) and alternating three timelines, readers are started off with a murder. It's obvious that there's lies to be figured out as Beth's point-of-view clues us in but then we're taken back to the months before the murder and the arrival of Beth's past love Gabriel. When a horrible incident has Beth entering his life again, by way of watching his young son as he's a new single dad, readers can feel Beth being pulled into trouble. The story then jumps to Beth and Gabriel meeting as young teens and from there the alternating timelines are set, the beginning in 1950s with Beth and Gabriel's romance, the past in 1968 with Beth and Gabriel entering each other's lives again, and the present in 1969 with a murder trial.
But we are not who we once were.
The alternating timelines weave the reader in and around the characters' relationships showing how they were formed and their emotional ties. The literary style works to elevate the tone but the way Beth goes about things is pure Mess. There's the alluring rich boy Gabriel, the country girl Beth who doesn't feel worthy but has big dreams, and the strong stoic farm boy Frank who yearns and loves Beth from afar until he gets his chance with her. Even though these characters do fit into these common molds, I did think the author infused them with enough depth to keep you absorbed into their characters and lives. Frank's stoicism was probably the most I wanted to break out of, feeling a little noble poor idealistic. The secondary characters of Frank's younger brother Jimmy, Jimmy's girlfriend, and other friends and family appear and provide enough to give a good rounding out of the main characters' world.
Our love triangle – the farmer, his wife and the famous author – has been prodded and picked over and sensationalised out of all proportion in Fleet Street.
This started off with me trying to work out the mystery of the who, what, and whys of the murder mystery, but I slowly drifted from that to becoming more invested in how Beth's grief (there are content warnings in this for death of a child, death of an animal, murder, and alcoholism) had her pulling from those close to her and trying to escape into a past idealized life that was no longer there for her. The last twenty percent delivers reveals readers were waiting for and one that felt hinted at but will still shock some, and an ending that will first hurt until an epilogue delivers the healing. If you enjoy melodrama mess in literary style that takes you on an alternating timeline journey as the murder mystery is slowly untangled, then you'll want to pick this one up.
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