Wow! eBook
Say Goodbye to the Boys
Author(s): Mari Stead-Jones (Author)
- Publisher: Parthian Books
- Publication Date: 1 Mar. 2013
- Language: English
- Print length: 250 pages
- ISBN-10: 190806997X
- ISBN-13: 9781908069979
Book Description
A serial killer is on the loose in a sleepy, Welsh seaside town, picking off victims like some people pick cockles…The year is 1947 and three young men have recently been demobbed and are back at home in north Wales. It’s the start of good weather and they’re enjoying being alive. They share the favours of Lilian Ridetski, who runs more than a high class hair salon in the town. When she and others are found brutally strangled, suspicion falls on all of her customers. Blackmail and murder make Say Goodbye to the Boys both a dark comedy and a quick-witted thriller. It’s also surprisingly tender, a portrait of old friendships lived to the gentle rhythms of a sleepy, wave-lulled town in the warm face of summer. Written by Mari Stead Jones and based on notes she discovered in a wooden box belonging to her author father, Stead Jones, it proves that writing is a gift one can inherit, and introduces Mari as a comic writer of the first order.
Editorial Reviews
Review
In 1985 a respected and successful writer dies, leaving behind a box of notes, ideas and excerpts from unpublished works. Twenty-two years later, his daughter stumbles across the box and becomes determined to finish the book he’d written notes for all those years ago. This isn’t the synopsis of a book, but rather the real-life story of a book’s genesis: Stead Jones, author of Make Room For The Jester, is the deceased writer, and Mari Stead Jones the determined daughter. The book is Say Goodbye To The Boys. Despite what this story behind the book may imply, whatever one may assume from it, this is not some kind of family vanity project. Say Goodbye To The Boys is an excellent period murder mystery with a great plot that contains humour, darkness and sadness. Set in the fictional north-Wales town of Maelgwyn-on-Sea, Say Goodbye To The Boys covers the first summer back on civvy street for three young friends demobbed from the army following the Second World War. Despite their hopes and expectations, life back at home is not as easy as anticipated when murders start disrupting life in the sleepy town and the friends find themselves thrust into the spotlight of the town’s gaze. Our three main characters are expertly crafted into believable and likeable friends: we have Philip, our everyman protagonist; Emlyn, the confident Jack-The-Lad, and Marshall (Mash), the gentle friendly giant of the group. Together the friends do what they can to get life and friendship back to normal after their experiences on the front line – though that’s easier said than done when there’s a serial killer in town. The fictional seaside-resort setting is a great backdrop to the story. It is painted vividly throughout as quaint and innocent, but Jones expertly avoids being too twee. As well as the claustrophobia that inevitably comes with small-town life, Jones excellently describes the impact, socially and economically, that the recent war has had. The ‘them versus us’, ‘friend versus foe’, and ‘local versus outsider’ dynamic is played out repeatedly against this backdrop and the town becomes a great literary landscape. Jones manages a fine balancing act – always staying on the right side. The book’s supporting cast of small-town characters are all stock enough to be understood and recognised, but never clichéd or predictable. Similarly, and importantly for a murder mystery, Jones gives the reader nudges and winks throughout but never too bluntly or enough to create crude spoilers. It’s impressively accomplished in this sense. Say Goodbye To The Boys is a great mystery novel. It tips its cap to a well-worn genre and a well-documented time, but remains a unique read that’s well worth checking out. — Liam Nolan @ www.gwales.com
About the Author
Mari was born in Preston and still lives in the north west of England. This is her first novel.
