Book Review ~ Birds Don't Cry by Sandy Day

 

2020

My thank to the author for my ecopy of this book

Sometimes sisters and brothers don’t get along – even when they’re middle aged.

Kaffy Sullivan lives and works in the business her grandparents began in the 20th century. Reclusive and offbeat, Kaffy hopes to inherit the inn and, with the help of her sister-in-law, operate it for the rest of her life.

When an important publication makes a reservation, Kaffy is under pressure to get Sullivan House spruced up in time for the review. But Sylvia, who Kaffy depends on, has disappeared. She hasn’t shown up for work, and Kaffy’s bad-tempered brother doesn’t seem to care that his wife is missing.

Cracking under the pressure to get the inn ready, and more urgently, find Sylvia, Kaffy struggles through a harrowing nest of repressed memories and traumatic family rivalries.

For readers of women’s fiction and domestic thrillers, Birds Don’t Cry is a page turner that drops you directly into one family’s conflict and search for survivors.

What did I think about it..

Sometimes family secrets run deep and in this dysfunctional family there are lots of pressures  especially when conflict between family members threatens to ruin everything.

Kaffy Sullivan is hoping to inherit the aptly named Sullivan House and then run it with her sister-in-law, Sylvia. Kaffy is an interesting character, introspective by nature and the complete opposite to Sylvia, and yet the two women compliment each other, unlike Sylvia's husband, who seems to thwart everything with his own complicated agenda.

Birds Don't Cry is a family driven/character driven novella which explores the drama which comes from people who all have different motives and I think the author succeeds in bringing a certain amount of tension into the story whilst at the same time allowing the plot to build slowly. The author writes with enthusiasm and obviously enjoys story telling and bringing interesting characters to life, the mystery at the centre of the story is nicely explored and kept my attention.

About the Author

Photo Credit : Tony Hicks

Sandy Day is the author of Fred's Funeral, Chatterbox Poems, An Empty Nest, Head on Backwards Chest Full of Sand, and Birds Don't Cry. She graduated from Glendon College, York University, with a degree in English Literature sometime in the last century. Sandy is a trained facilitator for the Toronto Writers Collective’s creative writing workshops. She lives in Georgina, Ontario, Canada.

Website

Facebook

Amazon UK