One of the few good things about flying (apart from getting to the destination of course) is the hours of uninterrupted reading it provides, so I always make sure I take a book I think I’m going to love with me. Therefore when The Daves Next Door landed on my doormat I knew it would be the perfect book for my weekend away.
The Daves Next Door tells the story of a hotpotch of characters. There is the uncaring nurse, the old man being cared for by angels, a sportsman with a life changing injury and two men called Dave with an identical brain tumour. All with separate lives potentially destined to collide, or so the narrator tells us, but can we believe a potential suicide bomber or is he in fact God?
There are some books that once you read them you continue to think about for days afterwards, and this was one of those books. It is hard to really describe the story as it doesn’t fit into any standard category. There is crime but there is so much more. Its a study of character as well as a comment on everyday life.
I really don’t want to give anything away with this, so it’s going to be tricky to review. However I want to say enough that you will go and buy a copy. I personally think that Will Carver is one of the most original and outstanding novelists currently going. In The Daves Next Door he provides us with a cast of characters where nothing is what it seems, yet everything is just as it seems.
The story is written with short sharp chapters that absolutely zip along. There is a narrator that is not just unreliable but is almost ghost like as he watches the others on the train, and gives us insight to the world. The chapters from him are the ones that really stick in your mind. A series of questions within the narrative almost slip by as you read them, then suddenly it makes you think ‘Has anybody ever drawn a perfect circle, freehand?’ ‘Would you eat less lamb if it was labelled ‘baby sheep’?’ Within the questions is a commentary from the narrator on the tube which is frankly chilling.
I’ll confess that it took me a little while to get into this, the short chapters mean you flit from one to another quickly and it takes a while to get all the ducks in a row in your head, but it’s absolutely worth it. I loved the sense of unknown that came through when you read it. The characters are all vividly written and how they come together at the end is fitting.
I’ve read alot of Will Carver’s previous books, Psychopaths Anonymous and Nothing Important Happened Today are two of the best novels I’ve ever read and The Daves Next Door is no exception. A highly original read that will stay with you long after you finish it.
Find out what others thought of The Daves Next Door by visiting the other stop on the blog tour:
A crime readers blog 