A book that engaged me ,well written involving a man not well liked.His family his life kept me involved turning the pages ..Sat down to read a few pages & wound up reading late into the night.#netgalley#McDowell

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.

Hiram McDowell's life is complex: married three times with three children plus step-kids, living and working in hospitals in Denver and Louisville and Kathmandu, plus spending time in Chicago on the board for the International College of Surgeons. He is egotistical and obsessive by nature, with an utter lack of empathy and disregard for the feelings of others; the way he talks to and about everyone is caustic, withering and unforgivable and yet nobody addresses any of this ever, and he has sex with women all over the place.

At first I was intrigued by McDowell's contemptible sexist superficiality, assuming it was written thusly in order to facilitate his morphing into humaneness via a spectacular story arc. But soon I noticed that every (powerful) male character treats women shabbily and every (submissive) female's description is limited to her body weight and her lusty bits. It's never explained why McDowell has such hostility against women. Or why McDowell's daughter Sophie goes from being a submissive lesbian, to falling in love with a male Prince Charming figure; which on its own is not intrinsically problematic, but then there's a homosexual character who steals away the lesbian girlfriend and that for me was a bridge too far.

My favorite part was reading about Hiram's time on the lam, I liked how he managed to MacGuyver untraceable phone calls, withdraw enough money to survive on without drawing attention from authorities and hired detectives, and also carry around a memoir he's writing long-hand in addition to his essentials and household goods. I would be willing to read a short story by this author, as that's his specialty. Perhaps if all the unfleshed out superfluous characters, plot twists, and all the men being hateful to women for no reason were eliminated there would be a tight story here.

Writing a good story with a deeply dislikeable main character is a difficult task, and unfortunately, I don’t think the author pulled it off here. While the central theme was solid enough, the execution left a lot to be desired. Too many paper thin characters and plot points that are rushed and skimmed over.

This was an FRC in exchange for an honest review. With thanks to Netgalley and BookBuzz.Net