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encounterswiththemoon 's review for:
Unnatural Ends
by Christopher Huang
After the death of Lawrence Linwood in what proves to be a devastating series of blows; his three (3) children find themselves sequestered with the responsibility of solving his murder. However, what is to ensue is something straight out of a series of closed-door murder mysteries which might leave you patiently waiting for the conclusion to confirm your suspicions. Huang waltzes the reader throughout 1921; memories of the Great War, the scientific upheaval to be felt around the world, & the social changes breaching the surface of the previously lavishly lived lives of the wealthy.
I have very conflicting feelings about this book. Therefore, let me state first & foremost that Huang is a brilliant writer. The language which is employed throughout the story was both appropriate for its time as well as meticulously crafted to fit the character who was utilizing it. The book is separated into four (4) parts & within each of these, we see many characters take the main stage as we pass through events from their first-person point of view. This never left me feeling confused or muddled. Everyone is a clearly defined individual & their dialogue matched their personalities. That is to say that Huang presents the reader with fantastic characters.
My reason for feeling conflicted is that I have read this story before in a number of other books, mainly “The Body in the Library” by Agatha Christie. I will take ownership of my feeling of not being very pleased with the mystery as a whole as this will be a book filled to the brim with subject matters that many people might not be aware of. However, many seasoned readers will have guessed the plot layout from the initial chapters & will subsequently spend 400 pages waiting for their conclusions to be confirmed—such is the case with my reading experience.
The character of Lawrence Linwood is one of a child abuser. Reading so many instances wherein the children are being put under psychological duress was very distressing. That is not to say that things of this nature should not be written, on the contrary, I think it is of value to share the reality that many experiences. However, being as this book was so long, the number of times all of the children reflect both individually & collectively about scenarios in which their father induced fear & violence to reinforce the moulding he sought to achieve, was very draining. When it is revealed that Linwood was in fact impregnating the biological mothers of his children, none of whom were his wife, I had to ask myself if this was meant to be a shock. This was, after all, a character who was abusing children for the entirety of their lives to the point in which they were psychologically impaired in their adulthood.
I cannot say that presenting Linwood as a child abuser was done in vain nor could I say that it was meant to leave subtle hints at the extent he would go to to achieve what he desired. Therefore, perhaps the reveal of the children being biologically related to him simply intended to extend the reader’s horror when we learn that he bludgeoned a man to death in a quest to find the right air for his estate.
As I said before, I have read “The Body in the Library” & the instant that we learn that Linwood’s body was beyond recognition as a result of the violence of his murder, I thought back to Agatha Christie. I cannot imagine trying to write murder mysteries knowing that the titan herself has covered essentially any plausible roadways an author might take. Regardless, there will be people who have not read this book & shall not think to question whether or not the psychopath would indeed fake his death to continue pursuing his torment behind the curtain.
What I found to be frustrating while reading this book was having to wait for the characters to remember the obvious. The entire estate had servants' halls, old tunnels, nooks & crannies, yet no one thinks to check any of those at any time. It is only after the death of the actor that everyone clues into the impossibility of the murder being performed by someone outside the house. Everything up until that point was truly always hinting at the same person, Linwood, as being the perpetrator. I appreciate the ludicrous notion that is him faking his own death but, it truly felt as though the bulk of the novel focused on the children finding their other biological parents—two of which were also murdered by Linwood & Rebecca. This is an interesting plot point but, again, I had guessed at this early on & so their quests, back & forth across town, felt interminably long.
There is a lot to say in terms of how the subject matter & the characters were presented in this book. Rebecca Linwood has been brutally abused by her husband for over 30 years & by the end of the story, she is institutionalized. The three Linwood children are abused throughout their nearly 30 years of life & are then expected to simply pull up their socks & trudge onward. We are presented with two very different conclusions to similar situations. Caroline has to drown a cat so that her father might mould her to be less emotionally inclined & more willing to murder human beings for reasons that, in my opinion, are not very clear.
The premise behind Linwood faking his own death was to put into practice throughout the years of abusive, moulding, he had inflicted on his children. He wanted them to fight until their deaths for the right to rule the estate. Should they have complied, Linwood would have done what? Simply moved away & remained hidden until the event of his actual death? What if none of his children had returned at the news of his passing? What if they had sat at the house & realized how crummy their childhood was & sold the estate? Lest we forget that Rebecca was put into Broadmoor Hospital—convincing any one person of her inability to maintain the estate would not have been complicated.
Subsequently, why did the police not question the clause in the Will? To indicate that, in the event of murder, the child who solves the crime will be the ruler of all, seems very bizarre. How many people are inserting such a clause into their final Will & Testaments? Understandably, one is meant to suspend their disbelief to appreciate the decision that the police took to allow the children to play detective & search for their father’s killer. Leading into that, had Linwood thought about the fact that his children would discover his past crimes? What if they had found him out only to abandon the estate altogether? After all, their father murdered their biological mothers & sent another into isolation for fear of violence. Is it not plausible that they would feel some inkling of understanding the magnitude of such actions?
Much of this story resides on the children acting in turn to the abuse they suffered yet, Linwood knew them to be independent beings who had well-established lives. Might he not have worried for an instant that his plan would fall, as we say, à l’eau? Perhaps, I am seeking to understand too much of a man who had nothing but hatred in his heart. All while understanding that abuse manifests itself in various ways for everyone who has found themselves at its mercy.
When all is said & done the reason I did not dislike this book was due to the quality of the writing. I found myself; annoyed at Caroline’s ignorance & absurd obsession with quoting plays; a bit bored at the redundancy of the full names of characters being repeated; longing for more of Alan’s point of view; sad for the lawyer who went home to an empty house; distressed at the amplitude of horrors experienced by Rebecca; weighed down by the reality of a post-war era; saddened for the children who manoeuvred their way in a darkened life; last, but not least, appreciative of a story which was harrowing from start to finish regardless of the transparency of the crimes, the themes presented held their own.
Thank you to NetGalley, Inkshares, & Christopher Huang for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!