📚’The whole narrative is superbly shaped and paced’. @for_fi Reviews #PsychologicalDrama An End To Etcetera by @rbconklin1 for Rosie’s #Bookreview Team #RBRT #BookTwitter

Today’s team review is from Fiona

Fiona blogs here https://fionaforsythauthor.co.uk/blog/

Rosie’s Book Review Team

Fiona has been reading An End To Etcetera by B. Robert Conklin

Selena is pregnant, in the middle of a divorce, doesn’t know who the father of her child is, and is a psychologist to troubled adolescents. She has the job of assessing the very troubled Leal with a view to his continuance in school, and at first, this seems like high stakes in the context of life in the town of Ovid. (As a classicist currently writing a series about the Roman poet, you can imagine how happy I was just to be reading about a town called Ovid!)

But “An End to Etcetera” is so much more than an examination of small-town life. As we follow Selena’s increasing concern over Leal, layers of Ovid are peeled away and examined coolly and dispassionately – and it takes the whole book before we are convinced that we know what is real and what is the product of Leal’s story-telling mind. In the end, there are no angels or devils, but many flawed people, beautifully- portrayed and presented to the reader without judgement.

The whole narrative is superbly shaped and paced, a slow burn, but with a sense of disquiet that is built up skillfully. The quality of the writing is wonderful, spare, considered and clear. If this book doesn’t get a sled load of awards and become a Book Club hit, then life is unfair!

5 stars.

Book description

An End to Etcetera is a mystery/suspense novel for the adult literary market about an obsessive-compulsive psychologist who tries to uncover the truth behind her adolescent client’s confession to drowning an autistic boy left in his care. With no evidence to support Leal Porter’s allegation, the school has referred him to Selena Harris for counseling. Selena is going through troubles of her own: she’s separated from a husband who has ditched her for another woman, she’s pregnant after a one-night rebound with a former lover, and she’s moved back to her small hometown in Illinois to take care of her father who has suffered a debilitating stroke. Now she faces the toughest challenge of her career. Although she believes the alleged victim is the product of Leal’s overactive imagination and need for attention, she harbors one major doubt: What if she’s wrong? The novel would appeal to adult readers who enjoy solving psychological puzzles. Working alongside the psychologist, in the role of a detective.

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