A dark and twisty thriller set within a claustrophobic and deeply dysfunctional family, I missed the first two, which meant, I'm sure that I missed nuance. It is,, nonetheless, a well crafted novel that kept me engaged. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Hard to get in to and I found it difficult to like the characters. The writing was not great. I had not realised it was the third in a series so perhaps that was one reason I found the characters so unappealing.

I received a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have never read this author before but was drawn in by the synopsis of the story. The author was very good at setting the scene and making you feel the story. The plot was well developed. She also did a great job with the characters. I enjoyed this novel.

Kyle lost his brother, Chris, in an oil rig accident three years ago. The family has not been the same since Chris's passing. The family has often dealt with hard times, not just the loss of Chris. The story deals with the current issues the family is dealing with. These are made even more difficult when a murder takes place in their small town and Kyle's involvement is confusing and complicated. This book started a bit slow and I almost gave up on it, but I read some Goodreads reviews and decided to stick with it. I am very glad I finished this book. The dialogue picked up and made the story a faster read. Also, once the family background was given and the action started taking place, the entire pace of the story picked up. This turned out to be a very good read and I am giving it a 3.75 rounding to a 4-star review.

A really interesting and well told story with wonderful writing. I found myself thinking about it when I was reading it and raced pack to pick it up.

When I began reading this book, I did not realize that it was the third book in the series.  I get the sense that my feelings toward it might be different if I were aware of the back story.  The book begins by describing the Trapp family, a wild clan whose behavior was so egragious that locals had run them out of town.  I figured the book would center around "the youngest Trapp," the only member of the clan remaining in their small, Canadian town.  After the first chapter, however, the book took a turn away from the established story line, and the Trapps became secondary characters throughout most of the remainder of the book.

There is a lot of reminiscing throughout the story that I assume reference the previous two books.  Without that backstory, however, I found myself getting lost....a lot.  In fact, I have picked this book up and set it down about five times since the beginning of the year, finding it hard to connect enough to the characters to continue.  I never did relate enough to any one character to really care what happened to them.  In addition, while the main character, Kyle, only went a handful of places throughout the book, I was constantly lost at where he was currently located.  He was at the bar...then suddenly he's at Kate's house.  How did that happen?  He was on a mission to find a woman he believed might be in trouble, searching through a wooded area....and suddenly he's at a bar drinking?  What happened to his resolve to find the woman?  I found the disjointed sequence of events very frustrating.

Overall, "The Fortunate Brother" was not one of my favorite reads.  I do believe I would have connected more with the characters had I read the first two books in the series, but even then I would still have a problem with the story jumping around.  Overall, I rate this book 2/5 stars.

The Fortunate Brother as a murder mystery for me was hard to get into, it could be that this book is the third in a series and I wasn't aware of that when I started the book. Donna Morrissey's writing is superb. I cared about the plot, I wanted to find the murderer, it was dark, as a murder story should be, and I was up half the night trying not to dream about the book. Although it isn't a stand-alone book it still was definitely worth the read. I would recommend reading Sylvanus Now and What They Wanted. then read The Fortunate Brother it is a must read!

ks
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Sandy *The world could end while I was reading and I would never notice* Jones
Sandy *The world could end while I was reading and I would never notice* Jones's Reviews > The Fortunate Brother

The Fortunate Brother by Donna Morrissey
The Fortunate Brother (Sylvanus Now #3)
by Donna Morrissey (Goodreads Author)
30817744
Sandy *The world could end while I was reading and I would never notice* Jones's review Mar 19, 2018 · edit
really liked it
bookshelves: 2018, netgalley-arc, new-to-me-author, 4-star, contemporary-fiction, family-drama, murder-mystery, crime

EXCERPT: . . . his father had been sick - heart attack from working himself to death fishing for cod that were too scarce to pay the bills and so he doubled his workload with cutting and hauling logs for the sawmills too. Heart just up and called it quits. New boat and new truck parked out by the door like hungry dogs, growling for their bank payments. And Sylvie. Good, good Sylvie stepping up to the fates. Came flying from her high paying job of the oil soaked fields of Alberta like Persephone, Lord of Underground Wealth. Took Chris back with her to the oil fields to help wrestle those snarling dogs and six weeks later Chris was dead.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: The Fortunate Brother is a dark, atmospheric and compelling novel about the aftermath of a murder in a claustrophobic rural community in Newfoundland. When a body is found in the lake suspicion falls on the troubled Now family. As the mystery unfolds other, far deeper, secrets are revealed. Compassionate and wise, beautiful and brutal, The Fortunate Brother is the story of a family and a community in turmoil and confirms Donna Morrissey's place as one of Canada's foremost storytellers.

MY THOUGHTS: I almost put off reading The Fortunate Brother by Donna Morrissey. I am glad I didn't. Initially, I struggled with the cadence of the writing. Totally my problem. But then a little ways in, I got it and never looked back. In fact I became consumed by this raw and brutal book, its rough and uncouth characters who have little, if any, beauty in their lives.

Life in this small hamlet in Newfoundland is harsh. As are the people towards one another. And yet they are also loyal. Protective of one another. The author paints a bleakly atmospheric picture of the Nows, their friends and family, their struggles, the landscape in which they live. Alcohol abuse and spousal abuse are just a regular part of the day.

There is a passage towards the end of the book that describes my feelings perfectly - 'He looked like an old sailor who'd weathered a great storm and was now safely anchored to a pier of his own making. ' Substitute 'felt' for 'looked', and that's how I felt at the end of the book.

Thank you to Cannongate Books via Netgalley for providing a digital copy of The Fortunate Brother by Donna Morrissey for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system.

This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

I didn't know this book was third in a series. Perhaps if I had read the previous two, I could have cared more for the characters. The writing and descriptions were good, but I just couldn't connect with the story.

This novel is one of those novels that won't let you sleep at night. It was so good that I just wanted to not do anything but read this novel. However, I'm not a thriller or crime person so it was a little to overwhelming. But I loved the plot and the characters are very well written. All in all, it was a good read and I would recommend people to get it because it won't let you down at all. The novel Now family is so relatable that I felt like I knew them in some ways.
P.S when I finished I realized that it was part of a trilogy, but somehow I felt like I was reading it from the beginning.

Good writing, however I was unaware that to understand this book I should have read the previous two novels in the series. Wasn't caught up with any of the characters, unfortunately. Tried to give the book a chance but I think it's just not for me, unless I read the previous two.

This book and I didn't click, but I know that it's because I misunderstood the premise. I was expecting a murder mystery and didn't realize it was the third in a series. I appreciated Morrissey's ability to flesh out the Newfoundland setting and the language of its people, but without having read the previous two volumes (and again, that's on me), I couldn't make myself care about the characters.