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Curmudgeon does not begin to touch the character of Cathal Flood, an aging man resistant to his son's attempts to place him in an old-age home. Caregiver Maud Drennan finds herself drawn to Mr. Flood, and together they begin to work together towards Cathal's wish to remain in his home. Sensitive and touching.

Norma and I were lost in the heavy dense wooded coulee reading Mr. Flood’s Last Resort with four of our Traveling Sisters and we were swept up in the mystery and magic of this story that explores grief and loss. Jess Kidd does a good job bringing out some emotions here for us with the emotional depth that touches on grief and loss.

Jess Kidd does a fantastic job creating well-developed enduring characters here with our main characters Cathal and Maud. We really loved the dynamics between these two very different characters that really added some contrast to the story. We loved the dynamics that the other colorful and eccentric characters brought to the story as well.

What really stood out for us was Jess Kidd’s ability to blend a murder mystery set in a gothic mansion full of secrets and chaos with some black humor that adds some comic relief to the story.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Atria Books, Simon & Schuster Canada and Jess Kidd for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This is Traveling Sisters GR Reading Group Review and it can be found posted on our themed book blog Two Sisters Lost In A Coulee Reading.
https://twosisterslostinacoulee.com
Coulee: a term applied rather loosely to different landforms, all of which refer to a kind of valley

I loved this one! This was my first book by Jess Kidd and I am so happy that I finally found this author.

Mr. Flood's Last Resort is a fun book. Maud Drennan is a caregiver who is assigned to the home of an aged hoarder, Cathal Flood. Although he has a reputation for being a bit of a tyrant, Maud starts to make headway in working her way into Cathal's life and in cleaning us his mansion, which is packed full of rubbish, cats, and is run down. She eventually discovers a mystery and starts trying to figure out what happened to Cathal's family.

The story/mystery was excellent and I really loved the interactions between Maud and Cathal. I enjoyed Kidd's lyrical prose, the Irish flavour to the setting/story, and also the magical realism. Various saints follow Maud throughout the story and the book has a final surprise, as there is a short history of the saints at the end of the book.

Thank you to the author and Simon & Schuster Canada/Atria Books for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Jess Kidd’s latest novel, Mr. Flood’s Last Resort, is one heck of a page-turning black comedy. Maud Drennan has become Cathal Flood’s last resort. He is a hoarder and an old curmudgeon of the highest order and he has managed to chase off every cleaner the agency has sent him. If Maud can’t bring him and his house to heel, it’s the old folks home for him. Maud fortunately is clever, resourceful, and patient (perhaps due to her life-long relationship with dead saints who like to visit and critique her life on a regular basis) and, eventually Maud and Cathal reach, if not a friendship, a truce. But, even as she conquers the mess of his house and person, she becomes obsessed with the possibly not accidental death of his wife and the disappearance of a young girl who is somehow linked to him. She and Renata, her agoraphobic transgender landlady, are determined to get to the bottom of it so, with Renata’s chart board and spirit of adventure (albeit somewhat hampered by her agoraphobia) and Maud’s indefatigable sense of curiosity, the two set out to solve these mysteries with the saints cheering Maud on from the sidelines.

Okay, admittedly it took me a couple of chapters to acclimate myself to this novel because it’s not exactly your typical mystery novel or, well, novel in general. But once I caught up with it, I loved it. Mr. Flood’s Last Resort is definitely one of my favourite reads this year thanks to its twist and turns, its quirky characters, witty dialogue (including that of the saints), and its black humour. It should be noted that this is less about the mysteries and more about the relationships between Maud and the other characters but for anyone looking for something well-written, great fun, and completely original, this one's for you.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

Every once in a while the right book comes along at exactly the right time. I wasn’t very far along into Maud and Cathal’s story before I knew that this was exactly what I needed. It was one part Driving Miss Daisy, with another part Hoarders and a couple parts…I just don’t know.

The relationship between Maud and Mr. Flood was magical – I laughed, I cried, and I loved them both and wanted to smack them around from time to time. The dialogue and banter between them was second to none. The old cantankerous hoarder and the caretaker who refused to take any of his crap.

If you’ve ever seen an episode of Hoarders, you’ve met a Cathal Flood and have been through his house and around his property. Kidd’s writing masterfully brought it all to life. Her descriptions were vivid, she got down into the nasty, dirty details of Flood’s hoarding. The fighting over what stays and goes, his sneaking behind her back to bring things from the bin back into the house. Kidd definitely did her research on this.

Kidd’s writing was exceptional, her vocabulary enormous, and her sense of balance exemplary. I read for enjoyment; I don’t mind a few new words, but I hate it when an author makes me feel like they are better than me. While Kidd has a veritable cornucopia of a vocabulary, she kept enough “feckers” and “gobshites” around that I knew we were both on the same playing field.

This is an impossible book to categorize, so I won’t. It is just brilliant fiction. Enjoy!

*5 Stars