Title: The Blue Hour
Author: Douglas Kennedy
ISBN: 9781451666373
No. of Pages: 368
Genre: Thriller
Origins: Atria Books
Release Date: 16 February 2016
Synopsis:
“Robin knew Paul wasn’t perfect. But he said they were so lucky to have found each other, and she believed it was true.
She is a meticulous accountant, almost forty. He is an artist and university professor, twenty years older. When Paul suggests a month in Morocco, where he once lived and worked, a place where the modern meets the medieval, Robin reluctantly agrees.
Once immersed into the swirling, white hot exotica of a walled city on the North African Atlantic coast, Robin finds herself acclimatizing to its wonderful strangeness. Paul is everything she wants him to be—passionate, talented, knowledgeable. She is convinced that it is here she will finally become pregnant.
But then Paul suddenly disappears, and Robin finds herself the prime suspect in the police inquiry. As her understanding of the truth starts to unravel, Robin lurches from the crumbling art deco of Casablanca to the daunting Sahara, caught in an increasingly terrifying spiral from which there is no easy escape.
With his acclaimed ability to write thought-provoking page-turners, Douglas Kennedy takes readers into a world where only Patricia Highsmith has ever dared. The Blue Hour is a roller-coaster journey into a heart of darkness that asks the question: What would you do if your life depended on it?”
My Thoughts: The Blue Hour is one of those novels that has it all. It has mysterious characters with hidden agendas. It has a kick-ass heroine who is put through all that life can throw at her plus more. It is set in an exotic locale that is romantic in its foreignness while simultaneously emitting an undercurrent of danger specifically because of its differences. The story itself is the epitome of a page-turner, as the heroine faces danger, uncomfortable truths, and uncovered secrets that rock the very foundation of her world. Just when you think the story cannot get any better, something occurs which throws both Robin and the reader into a cycle of doubt and wonder. It is unlike anything you have read or will read again, and sadly, not enough people will read this marvelous story.
Never one to shy away from tough questions and situations, Mr. Kennedy does not write simple thrillers. His stories have a depth to them that force readers to ask themselves the same tough questions asked of his characters. In The Blue Hour, he puts Robin through her paces as the main character. She faces unfathomable situations that would make a grown man weep. Yet, the truly intriguing thing about her is her motivations for her actions. While it may be easy to find fault with some of the insane things she does, Mr. Kennedy makes sure that readers cannot do so without first doing a little self-reflection.
After reading two of Mr. Kennedy’s novels, he became one of those must-read authors for me. Unfortunately, his novels are not ones I see reviewed very often in the online book world, and this truly saddens me. His writing is absolutely gorgeous, and his stories are faultless. The Blue Hour only confirms my opinions of his writing mastery. I only hope everyone else finally discovers him and loves his work as much as I do.
BOTTOM LINE: Another stellar novel from Douglas Kennedy, who remains, in my opinion, one of the most underrated and under-publicized authors today.
