I’m excited to be part of the blog tour for this brilliant read, One of the Good Guys, by Araminta Hall – my first novel by this author, but it certainly won’t be my last!
Read on to find out what I thought…
Title: One of the Good Guys
Author: Araminta Hall
Publisher: Macmillan
Synopsis:
If most men claim to be one of the good guys, then why do so many women live in fear? This is what happens when two such women have had enough…
Cole is the perfect husband; a romantic, supportive of his wife’s career, keen to be a hands-on dad, not a big drinker. A good guy.
So when his wife leaves him, he’s floored. She was lucky to be with a man like him. Craving solitude, he accepts a job on the coast and quickly settles into his new life. Then he meets reclusive artist Lennie. And though she is quite different from the woman he’d expected, he believes he has finally found a soulmate. But as their relationship develops, two young women go missing while on a walk protesting gendered violence, right by where Cole and Lennie live.
Finding themselves at the heart of a police investigation and media frenzy, Cole soon realises they don’t know each other very well at all…
My review:
One of the Good Guys took some time to completely pull me in, but once it did, I was completely hooked on this addictive, shocking (but sadly all too realistic) and well-crafted novel.
It’s a book of two parts, in my mind. In the first, we get to know Cole, a self-confessed ‘good guy’ still suffering from the abrupt end of his marriage. We hear his version of events as he vents to the reader about his ex-wife Mel’s unreasonable behaviour and how hard he tried to make things between them better, as well as his run-in with two activists who then go missing. In the second half, we switch to the perspectives of Mel and Lennie, a woman Cole meets living in a nearby cottage.
I don’t want to give much away about the plot, but this wasn’t really about the mystery of what had happened to the two missing women – it’s more of a character study into those men who think they aren’t the problem and the women who have had their lives changed as a result.
There are many themes addressed in this novel but some of the key topics are violence against women, society’s treatment of women who don’t conform, social media and its part in high-profile cases, and much more. It deals with these issues brilliantly through the characters’ narratives as well as social media posts, transcripts, and press releases – all of which together create a rich and varied story. I love novels that use a mix of media and this is a great example.
The writing is sharp and satisfying, and Araminta Hall has created such convincing, interesting characters – not all likeable characters, mind, but I’ve never needed the characters of a book to be likeable to enjoy it! – that I finished One of the Good Guys and immediately sought out people to speak about it with, whether they’d read it or not. I really liked the fact that the plot was told quite objectively, giving insights into the views of those who don’t agree with what took place – and as the reader, it’s clear that no one in this novel is ‘good’ or ‘bad’; each person has their own faults and, even if we want to be on their side, didn’t necessarily behave perfectly.
One of the Good Guys would make a brilliant book club read and is thought-provoking and intriguing, especially as the story ramps up in the second half. Highly recommended!
My rating: 5/5
Many thanks to Random TT Tours for providing a copy of this book on which I chose to write an honest review and for my spot on the blog tour.
About the author:
Araminta Hall is a journalist and teacher. She is the author of five previous novels, including her first novel, Everything & Nothing, which was published in 2011 and became a Richard & Judy read that year. She is the great-niece of Dodie Smith and the great-granddaughter of Lawrence Beesley, who survived the Titanic and wrote a bestselling account of the tragedy in the book, The Loss of the SS Titanic. She teaches creative writing at New Writing South in Brighton, where she lives with her husband and three children.
Thanks for the blog tour support x