I read this in one sitting as I’d volunteered to read and review it for the Facebook Book Club I belong to.

Reviewing this book is quite difficult as the success of its humour depends on the taste of the reader. I found wigs, farts, nose picking and cracking people over the head with rolling pins too much like the humour of immature teenage boys to be comic for me, but if you like slapstick I think you would really enjoy this story.

The plot is well designed, bringing the criminal Soddalls together with the too long married Arthur and Gretyl well. The characters are depicted clearly, if somewhat stereotypically, although there is some real pathos attached to Arthur. Short chapters help retain the reader’s attention and the dialogue was particularly effective with accents conveyed convincingly. Despite all the twists and turns in the plot, however, I thought there was little depth or development with far too much dialogue so that it felt as if I was being told what was happening by the characters rather than reading it for myself. It felt more like a film script than a novel.

Some will love this and some will hate it. I thought it was competent.