How many bad decisions does it take to go from doting father to travelling down a very dark path?

Not as many as you’d think . . .

Adrian Smythe is just a regular guy. He is employed, married, and loves his daughter Grace. He even has a dog. But he can’t shake the feeling that something is missing.

Genre: Crime / Thriller / Mystery 
Pages: 235
Publisher: Bloodhound Books 

So, in an act of rebellion, Adrian quits his job and moves out of the family home. After disconnecting from everything in his past, he believes he is finally free from the constraints he resented so much.

But Adrian’s new life may not be exactly what he bargained for. In fact, it could all end in murder.

My Review

I’m getting slight Will Carver vibes here, though I couldn’t describe Fall From Grace as darkly funny. But it is shocking and highly original. We are forced to be voyeuristic, watching him having a mental breakdown. But just how far will he go?

Adrian Smythe has been in his job for seven years. He hates it. Do this, do that. There are no windows in his office. It’s claustrophobic. New CEO Jason Gash talks in annoying marketing-speak. …to sync our online output more dynamically,’ he says, ‘with the bricks and mortar side of our business … yada yada’. And has no-one ever told him his trousers are too tight. You really want to slap him. Adrian decides to walk out instead. Nine year old Grace knows he’s quit his job, because he takes her out of school to explore with Reggie the dog and eat ice-cream. He loves Grace but thinks she is bordering on ugly. I found this very strange.

He doesn’t tell his wife though. He puts on a suit and pretends to go to work each day. She’s lucky. She loves her job and is always talking about it, and her boss Joe. Adrian thinks they are having an affair.

We watch Adrian’s breakdown from his point of view. He smokes weed all day and walks the dog. He talks a lot about sex. When Dolores finds out about the job, it all comes to a head and he walks out of his marriage as well. He lives in a flat by the sea, a regular visitor to his next door neighbour Doris, only he calls her Flo because she doesn’t look like a Doris. He tells her to call him Hank. He’s never known anyone called Hank, only the singer Hank Williams, and he can’t even remember one of his songs.

As he begins to spiral out of control, he counts the days since he last saw Grace. But do we feel sorry for him? I’m not sure.

The ending is so touching, I cried. I cried for Adrian, for Grace and for Flo. And for Chantal, Queen of all the faeries. But I didn’t cry for Derek, because he didn’t deserve my sympathy.

Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of the #FallFromGraceBlogTour

About the Author

Alan Feldberg is the author of Fall From Grace. He writes literary fiction and psychological crime, with a keen focus on the human condition and the hidden, underlying motives that drive conventional people to do unconventional things. His influences include John Banville, Richard Ford, Iris Murdoch, M.J. Hyland, Elizabeth Strout, Flannery O’Connor, Sebastian Faulks and Roddy Doyle.  Alan has travelled extensively, living in South Africa and Canada, and now lives in Yorkshire with his wife and daughters.

His second novel will be published in June.

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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/204459178-fall-from-grace
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