📚’This is a beautiful novel’. @OlgaNM7 Reviews #Mystery Soft As Water by @rbconklin1 for Rosie’s #BookReview Team #RBRT

Today’s team review is from Olga.

Olga blogs here https://olganm.wordpress.com/

Rosie’s Book Review Team

Olga has been reading Soft As Water by Robert C. Conklin

For those of you who are in a hurry, I’ll summarise my opinion: this is a beautiful novel (and I don’t mean all that happens in it is beautiful, far from it); the writing is a joy; the characters are intriguing, interesting, complex and also easy to relate to; and the plot has very realistic elements in combination with others that wouldn’t be out of place in a fable or a fairy tale. Oh, and there are ghosts and afterlife experiences. If any of that sounds like something you want to read, do yourself a favour and go for it. It is not an experience you’ll easily forget.
Writing a more detailed review is a bit difficult without spoiling important aspects of the story that would be better discovered when reading it, and I think the description of the novel has more than enough detail to entice possible readers.
I read An End to Etcetera some time ago and was very impressed by it, so I was happy to catch up with the author’s next novel, and it didn’t disappoint.
The writing is as compelling and beautiful as it was in the previous novel, although the structure and the setting of the novel are very different. We have characters who hide secrets (and in some cases even identities); history seemingly repeating itself; forbidden (and interracial) love; tragic deaths (that might not have been exactly as people believe); dotting grandmothers with contrasting agendas; a young woman trying to find herself (and understand her parents); a protagonist trying to atone for a serious mistake; several abandoned families; a curious investigator and his occasional sidekick (whom I love!); a mysterious butler (aren’t they all?); a ghost (who used to play jazz); a friendly landlady; a bridge about to be torn down; a museum with “colour” days; a Gothic mansion with an enchanted garden; a door leading to nowhere; two female tigers; a small town that is a full-blown character in its own right…
The characters are complex, as are their motivations, and although the story is told in the third person, mostly from the point of view of the protagonist, Will Archer —we follow at times some of the other characters who play smaller roles—, readers get to feel and experience what he/they are living through their eyes, thoughts, and sensations. The character’s heads are not always comfortable places to inhabit, but the lyrical writing and the curious events will keep everybody turning the pages. Despite the peculiar nature of the story and its characters, I think most readers will empathise with one or more aspects of the story and the experiences the protagonists are going through, however distant they might be from their own lives. Even when one takes a break from reading the story, it is hard not to keep imagining what might be going on, or what it would be like to live in this extraordinary place, which at times feels like a mix of a fairy tale (with witches and magical beings), a mythological story, and a fable.
I’ve already mentioned in my brief summary that, despite the beauty of the book, some of the topics and the events that take place are disturbing: there is violence, there is sexual exploitation, and some of the subjects and situations have the potential to trigger readers, so caution is recommended. Those not concerned about this, do not need to worry and think that this is a dark and overly dramatic book where one never gets a break and nothing good ever happens. Apart from the weird and wonderful characters and somewhat surreal events that take place, there are plenty of lighter moments and delightful touches of humour nicely spread through its pages.
What’s more, the ending (and there are surprises, of course, although some readers might guess some of them) is optimistic and ultimately redeeming and hopeful.
Another great novel by a writer I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about pretty soon.

Book Description:

A sensitive loner on the run from his past. A rebellious young heiress with a death wish. A bridge brings them together … a mystery can tear them apart.

Following a life-shattering accident, conscience-stricken Will Archer seeks refuge in a small Ohio River town, where he plans to live out his life as a virtual hermit. But a chance encounter with Essence Warner, orphaned daughter of a jazz saxophonist and an aristocratic socialite, entangles him in a quest to discover the truth behind the cold case of her parents’ mysterious deaths.

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