Review: Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent

Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent
Publisher: Penguin (Ireland)
Release date: 9 April 2015
Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: 'I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her' Alice and Oliver Ryan seen blessed, both in their happy marraige and in their successful working patnership. Their shared life is one of enviable privilege and ease. Enviable until, one evening after supper, Oliver attacks Alice and beats her into a coma. Afterwards, as everyone tries to make sense of his astonishing act of savagery, Oliver tells his story. So do those whose paths he has crossed over five decases. It turns out that there is more to Oliver than Alice ever saw. But only he knows what he has done to get the life to which he felt entitled. And even he is in for a shock when his past catches up with him.

Unravelling Oliver is a novel that aims to do exactly that, unravel the character of Oliver Ryan.

From the outset is is quite clear that Oliver Ryan, author of Children's books, is not a particularly likeable man, certainly not loveable.

Married to his illustrator, Alice, it is clear at some point that she must have loved him. You begin to wonder at this point exactly what made Oliver resort to violence as he does at the very beginning of the book.

Each chapter of Unravelling Oliver is told from a different characters perspective, and a different period in time. Now I know some people don't, but I love it when an author does this. It really allows you to get inside each of the characters and learn more about them.

Oliver it seems, had a miserable childhood, sent 'away' to boarding school as soon as he was of age, never really welcomed back to the family home and encouraged to attend university and make a life for himself.

It is whilst at University that we see how Oliver's life begins to change. Here he meets, Laura (the love of his life) and Michael her brother. One summer they decide to take a trip to France to help out on a farm, and this is where a terrible event happens that warps Oliver's already twisted mind even further.

It is hard not to feel sorry for Oliver in certain places in this novel, at least until the full horror of what actually happened in his past is revealed, and then it becomes somewhat more difficult. If his past behaviour was bad, then this is nothing compared to the future and the fate of his wife Alice...

Unravelling Oliver is not a face paced thriller, but a beautifully written psychological thriller that truly shows have Oliver was unravelled.

Unravelling Oliver is available to buy now from Amazon online and all good book shops.

    Thank you to Catherine Ryan Howard at Penguin who sent me a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.  

Blog Tour: Unravelling Oliver

Unravelling Oliver Blog Tour  Day 4   Today is Day 4 of the #MeetOliver blog tour uncovering extracts from Liz Nugent's excellent crime debut: Unravelling Oliver.

Yesterday's extract: https://ravencrimereads.wordpress.com

Tomorrow's extract: http://myreading-corner.blogspot.co.uk

       

Extract 4  

Alice’s mother died suddenly in 1986, at the end of our fourth year of marriage. Thanks be to God. I can’t stand old people. Can’t stand it even more now that I am getting to be one.

I used to make excuses to avoid visiting her and her doily-draped furniture. Used to pretend to be too busy to eat with them when she came to visit us. It was never pleasant to witness her struggling with her dentures, the half-wit dribbling by her side. Her death was a mixed blessing.We got the house. But we also got Alice’s imbecilic brother. The house is quite a pile on Pembroke Avenue. The brother goes by the name of Eugene. 

Alice begged me to let her keep him. Until now, that was the biggest upset in our marriage. Bad enough to have a child, but this was a 27- year-old, fifteen-stone dolt we were talking about. Eventually, I had him accommodated

in a home for the ‘mentally handicapped’, or those with ‘special needs’, or whatever they are calling them this year, at considerable personal expense.

When we got engaged, I made it very clear that children were not on the agenda. Well, I said I didn’t want children, and she agreed. I should have got that in writing. She must have been extraordinarily besotted with me to sacrifice something so fundamental to her in order to marry me. Maybe she thought I would change my mind, because it seems that lots of men do. Or maybe she knew that if I didn’t marry her, I’d marry the next quiet one that came along.

Of course, five years into our marriage, Alice began to whinge, and grew more shrill with each passing month. I reminded her of our agreement. She claimed that at the time, that was what she had wanted too, but now she desperately wanted a child. I am nothing if not a man of my word.

I couldn’t depend on her to protect herself, so I took control. I made a ritual of bedtime cocoa with a little crushed pill as an added extra. Alice thought that was so romantic.

I haven’t exactly been a saint within our marriage. Women, by and large, are attracted to me and I do not like to disappoint them. Women you would never expect. Even Moya, for God’s sake. I eventually resent the ones who try to cling.

In later years, I had begun to satisfy myself with some tarts that operated near the canal. I never objected to them, even before I became a client. They were objects of curiosity. They were cheaper and more desperate, mostly addicts with raddled bodies and ropey veins, but perfectly adequate for my needs. I would order them into a shower before any congress was allowed and I always provided a new toothbrush. Some of them took it for a gift. Pathetic. They are usually too emaciated to be good- looking. One would think that they might make an effort to make themselves attractive. Alas, they were only selling their various orifices; the packaging was immaterial. But still, they held a fascination for me. After all, my mother was one, or so my father said.

  

Oliver Ryan is a handsome and charismatic success story. He lives in the suburbs with his wife, Alice, who illustrates his award-winning children's books and gives him her unstinting devotion. Their life together is one of enviable privilege and ease - enviable until, one evening after supper, Oliver attacks Alice and beats her into a coma.

In the aftermath, as everyone tries to make sense of his astonishing act of savagery, Oliver tells his story. So do those whose paths he has crossed over five decades. What unfolds is a story of shame, envy, breath-taking deception and masterful manipulation.

Only Oliver knows the lengths to which he has had to go to get the life to which he felt entitled. But even he is in for a shock when the past catches up with him.

Don't forget to visit
     http://myreading-corner.blogspot.co.uk

 tomorrow for the next extract!

    Thank you to Catherine Ryan Howard at Penguin for organising the blog tour and allowing me to take part.