Scan barcode
daja57's review against another edition
4.0
In the dying days of the first world war a squad of British soldiers with orders to undertake a highly dangerous river-crossing wile away the days before the attack by gambling. A greenhorn lieutenant eager for his first taste of action sows dissent among the men. One of them is killed, his legacy a pawnbroker's ticket. The soldiers are all representative types: the 'old sweat', the gay couple, the captain weighed down by his responsibilities, the coward, the wide boy,
In modern-day Edinburgh, Solomon, grandson of the officer in charge of the squad, tries to find the heir to an old man who has died in a nursing home, his clue being a pawnbroker's ticket. His search takes him to a foundling home in Northumbria.
The story shuttles between these two narratives; there are also snippets telling what happened to some of the soldiers after the war.
I found the first world war storyline a very slow build. One knew at once that someone (maybe more than one) had died because that is given ion the very first page. This hook was necessary because the soldiers did nothing for a long time except gambling and worrying and squabbling. This was tremendously authentic and the interplay between the characters was fascinating, but it was slow.
The modern storyline was significantly more surreal, though narrated with everyday and sometimes gritty reality. A trio of women sitting around a coffin appear at the start and the end. Solomon, in debt to a loan shark, escapes prison because a police officer wants him to do him a favour. On his journey south to find the heir he seems to have a charmed existence, turning up evidence wherever he goes and never questioning the most obscure clues. Characters from the first-world-war story keep cropping up in their descendants and coincidences abound, including resonances into his own murky past. Companions (a dog and a schoolboy) join him for portions of his quest. And I think the word quest explains what is happening. This storyline has a mythic quality. It is as if when Solomon leaves Edinburgh he enters a world which, for all its everydayness, is not quite real. It seems like a 'hero's jounrey' sort of story.
So back to the WWI storyline: is that also mythic? The farmhouse they find themselves at, in the last days of the war, with peace just around the corner and annihilation available just over the river, is more than once referred to as Eden and at least one of them acts as an Iago-like serpent. And, of course, they are all, in the present-day of the Solomon narrative, already dead.
So it seemed to me that the book was not just a simple whodunnit-style Heir Hunting story but one which offered totally unexpected resonances.
Some memorable moments:
"Some men were born to give instruction and others to take it. That's just the way it is." (The Debt, 1918, 2)
"Heir Hunting was full of false trails, but Solomon knew from experience that there was never a dead end on a family tree, only another branch to explore." (The Pawn, 2016, 2)
"Edinburgh, a city in which one often reached the destination one wanted, without ever quite understanding the route." (The Bet, 2016, 3)
"What was it about a society that called them heroes ... when all it ever did was use boys as fodder for the guns." (The Charge, 2016, 1)
In modern-day Edinburgh, Solomon, grandson of the officer in charge of the squad, tries to find the heir to an old man who has died in a nursing home, his clue being a pawnbroker's ticket. His search takes him to a foundling home in Northumbria.
The story shuttles between these two narratives; there are also snippets telling what happened to some of the soldiers after the war.
I found the first world war storyline a very slow build. One knew at once that someone (maybe more than one) had died because that is given ion the very first page. This hook was necessary because the soldiers did nothing for a long time except gambling and worrying and squabbling. This was tremendously authentic and the interplay between the characters was fascinating, but it was slow.
The modern storyline was significantly more surreal, though narrated with everyday and sometimes gritty reality. A trio of women sitting around a coffin appear at the start and the end. Solomon, in debt to a loan shark, escapes prison because a police officer wants him to do him a favour. On his journey south to find the heir he seems to have a charmed existence, turning up evidence wherever he goes and never questioning the most obscure clues. Characters from the first-world-war story keep cropping up in their descendants and coincidences abound, including resonances into his own murky past. Companions (a dog and a schoolboy) join him for portions of his quest. And I think the word quest explains what is happening. This storyline has a mythic quality. It is as if when Solomon leaves Edinburgh he enters a world which, for all its everydayness, is not quite real. It seems like a 'hero's jounrey' sort of story.
So back to the WWI storyline: is that also mythic? The farmhouse they find themselves at, in the last days of the war, with peace just around the corner and annihilation available just over the river, is more than once referred to as Eden and at least one of them acts as an Iago-like serpent. And, of course, they are all, in the present-day of the Solomon narrative, already dead.
So it seemed to me that the book was not just a simple whodunnit-style Heir Hunting story but one which offered totally unexpected resonances.
Some memorable moments:
"Some men were born to give instruction and others to take it. That's just the way it is." (The Debt, 1918, 2)
"Heir Hunting was full of false trails, but Solomon knew from experience that there was never a dead end on a family tree, only another branch to explore." (The Pawn, 2016, 2)
"Edinburgh, a city in which one often reached the destination one wanted, without ever quite understanding the route." (The Bet, 2016, 3)
"What was it about a society that called them heroes ... when all it ever did was use boys as fodder for the guns." (The Charge, 2016, 1)
paulsnelling's review against another edition
2.0
Needed editing, over complicated but with a satisfying ending. Spoiled by some implausibilities.
greybeard49's review against another edition
3.0
A great concept for a book and cleverly constructed but overly longgg! and repetitive in the telling. Some of the scenarios stretched belief and therefore devalued the whole. Pity.
sarahrosel's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
portybelle's review against another edition
5.0
Solomon Farthing is an heir hunter, someone who tries to find distant or estranged relatives of deceased people in order that they can inherit. And, of course, get a cut of that inheritance himself as a fee. When Thomas Methven passes away with no apparent heirs and with £50,000 sewn into his burial suit, Solomon has his work cut out for him. All he has to go on is a very old pawn ticket found among the old man's belongings. Solomon was brought up by his grandfather, Godfrey, who had a pawn shop and there the first of the connections began.
Because for me this book was all about connections. Connections to the past, connections to people, even connections to The Other Mrs Walker. Margaret Penny from that book gets a few mentions and makes an appearance, though is usually referred to in a disparaging way as that dreadful Penny woman! Thomas Methven has links to a group of soldiers in the 1st World War and so does Godfrey's grandfather. Solomon at one point muses that "Everyone was connected, one way or another, that was what he thought. "
There were so many echoes of the past linking with the present throughout the novel from phrases such as "his second best shirt", to the items that the soldiers used for gambling resurfacing at significant points: a centime, a tanner, a spool of pink cotton, a walnut shell, a cap badge. As Solomon investigates Methven's family tree he slowly begins the unpacking of the mystery and uncovers "a line that ran parallel to Solomon's own, connected by blood at the top, divided by secrets at the bottom." Fleshing out the story, we also hear from Godfrey Farthing's men in the last days of WW1 and then at various points in between then and the present day.
This was a book which appealed to me on so many levels. New Register House in Edinburgh, where Solomon carries out some of his genealogical research is a place I'm familiar with having researched my own family tree there. I recognise the thrill of discovery - "this was what he liked most about his profession - that moment when the dead waited for the living to wake them, bring them home again" - or the frustration of not being able to track someone down in the records. At least two of my great uncles served in WW1 in the Royal Scots which is the regiment Godfrey Farthing and others are part of. I very much enjoyed the parts of the book set in Edinburgh with the descriptions not only of familiar places but also the Edinburgh Ladies and Edinburgh Men - those capitals are deliberate!
The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing is a superb story, very cleverly told. It's a book which reminds us again of the futility of war and the repercussions affecting the soldiers and their families for years to come. Mary Paulson-Ellis writes with great insight about the way the men coped or didn't after their experiences in the Great War. It's a well-crafted and compelling piece of historical fiction with a fascinating mystery to be resolved. I loved following Solomon in his in investigations and finding out the stories of the men during and after the Great War, even though they were sometimes sad. I highly recommend this book.
Because for me this book was all about connections. Connections to the past, connections to people, even connections to The Other Mrs Walker. Margaret Penny from that book gets a few mentions and makes an appearance, though is usually referred to in a disparaging way as that dreadful Penny woman! Thomas Methven has links to a group of soldiers in the 1st World War and so does Godfrey's grandfather. Solomon at one point muses that "Everyone was connected, one way or another, that was what he thought. "
There were so many echoes of the past linking with the present throughout the novel from phrases such as "his second best shirt", to the items that the soldiers used for gambling resurfacing at significant points: a centime, a tanner, a spool of pink cotton, a walnut shell, a cap badge. As Solomon investigates Methven's family tree he slowly begins the unpacking of the mystery and uncovers "a line that ran parallel to Solomon's own, connected by blood at the top, divided by secrets at the bottom." Fleshing out the story, we also hear from Godfrey Farthing's men in the last days of WW1 and then at various points in between then and the present day.
This was a book which appealed to me on so many levels. New Register House in Edinburgh, where Solomon carries out some of his genealogical research is a place I'm familiar with having researched my own family tree there. I recognise the thrill of discovery - "this was what he liked most about his profession - that moment when the dead waited for the living to wake them, bring them home again" - or the frustration of not being able to track someone down in the records. At least two of my great uncles served in WW1 in the Royal Scots which is the regiment Godfrey Farthing and others are part of. I very much enjoyed the parts of the book set in Edinburgh with the descriptions not only of familiar places but also the Edinburgh Ladies and Edinburgh Men - those capitals are deliberate!
The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing is a superb story, very cleverly told. It's a book which reminds us again of the futility of war and the repercussions affecting the soldiers and their families for years to come. Mary Paulson-Ellis writes with great insight about the way the men coped or didn't after their experiences in the Great War. It's a well-crafted and compelling piece of historical fiction with a fascinating mystery to be resolved. I loved following Solomon in his in investigations and finding out the stories of the men during and after the Great War, even though they were sometimes sad. I highly recommend this book.
dhall58's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
gaga2203's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I cannot recommend any novel by Mary Paulson-Ellis enough. An absolute treat.
aineg's review against another edition
3.0
The premise was good but the delivery flawed. I nearly gave up several times as it was so confusing. Suspension of credibilty is required as some of the scenarios are totally unbelievable.
Pat Barker does a much better job writing on a similar theme.
Pat Barker does a much better job writing on a similar theme.
marloureads's review against another edition
1.0
Did not finish. After the first 100-ish pages I found myself simply not caring about the characters, feeling unattached about their issues and didn't really care how they would progress. And I told myself I would stop torturing myself with reading books that I don't fall in love with or like enough to finish, so I did.