"The Promise" by Lucy Diamond

An audio book.

After Dan's brother Patrick died in an accident (falling in the Thames; Dan was the last to see him alive after they'd argued), he doesn't visit his sister-in-law Zoe for a while. When he does, he ends up looking after her 3 kids for an evening. He feels guilty and offers to temporarily take over his brother's work - he rented out accomodation. Rosemary's a difficult old tenant. He discovers that his brother wasn't a good landlord. Also he'd been secretly paying a women Lydia £5K a year. He also tries to be a better family member. He discovers that his brother often popped in to see their parents. He keeps a note of his good deeds on a spreadsheet. He's chuffed when Ethan, Patrick's eldest, comes out to him. He hadn't come out to Patrick!

3 years before, Dan had divorced a woman who had left him behind socially and career-wise.

A third of the way in, we still don't know what the final argument between Patrick and Dan was about! Given that many chapters are from his PoV, it feels too artificial. Surely it's not something as obvious as Patrick saying he'd slept with Dan's wife. We find out that it is, but Dan only has Patrick's word for this. Dan's ex says he was boasting, lying.

We learn about dealing with grief, and how people handle the bereaved (avoidance, embarrassment, well-meaning incompetance etc). We learn how young kids deal with the sudden death of a father. Zoe lets her youngest believe in heaven and talk to her father. Zoe (a supply teacher) looks for a sign from her late husband too.

Lydia's Australian mother had died when Lydia was 16, which upset Lydia plan to go to a famous design college. Her daughter Jemmima's 7. Dan meets Lydia to assess whether she's a blackmailer, etc. He likes the look of her. When he hears what happened, he's not impressed with his brother, who dumped her. I wonder if he'll end up with Zoe or Lydia? Lydia had helped the crying Zoe in the street without knowing who she was. Lydia rashly says she doesn't need the money.

The more Dan learns above how Patrick treated tenants and women, the less he likes him. And what was the call that Patrick received on their last night? It seemed to worry Patrick.

At the end, the broken families join up like pieces of a jigsaw. It's a happy ending. Sibling rivalry's resolved. Rosemary usedto be a famous fashion designer and offer to teach Lydia

There's much annotated dialogue, the annotations often redundant. Some of the writing is loose -

• Go away, her body language said is very "tell not show"
• felt like a crater dropped on him mixes imagery
• words tumbling out in a rush
• her squeeze had been as faint as a fairy's though, barely there
• a fridge looked positively medieval in age - is "in age" needed?
• he thought to himself - who else would he think to?
• the blue sky was torn up with vapour trails from the aeroplanes above - why "above"? Come to that why "from the aeroplanes above"?

More successful examples include - "he thought, with a churn of sadness" (though "churn" is used elsewhere).

Other reviews

• Rea (Since losing my husband to the Thames I have avoided all books to do with references to lost lives to it and anything that is too heavy on the loss of a loved one but reading this book was an emotional journey for me. ... it is all to easy for everyone to put them on a pedal stool and only see the good in that person never dare to mention or highlight any weaknesses or wrong doings that they had and especially when things come to light after the passing of a loved one.)
• Shalini (This was quite a different book where it felt like a women’s fiction, but the story was basically from the POV of Dan. ... it was not as emotional as I expected it to be. The characters too could be better fleshed out.)
• goodreads