Boy on Hold

This indie novel caught my eye on Reedsy. It received a glowing review there and it also has an eye-catching cover, so I thought I'd give it a go. It's described as “a family-centered mystery that discusses addiction, mental illness, and parental relationships.” I was intrigued.

This story about a single mother, Marcella, and her two sons—Tyler and Henry—is a well-plotted story about a fatal struggle that the younger son witnesses late at night that leaves a neighbor—elderly Ms. Sally—dead. The older brother is thrown in jail, as he is accused of killing Ms. Sally, who also happened to be the family caretaker and friend to mother Marcella. The town contains plenty of shady characters as well as Ms. Sally's son, Bernie, who is a kind yet unassuming handyman.

Spero does an excellent job of plotting this intriguing story with a large cast of characters from a small Adirondack town. There are some genuine surprises as the mystery unfolds and the relationship between the mother and her sons is realistic and affectionately portrayed.

I did have a couple of issues with the book and they were quite glaring. One: the story is told in close third person and this unknown narrator takes on the view point of the focal character in each chapter, going so far as to use the terms of endearment the character would use for his / her parent and loved ones as well as slang or emotional state of the character. I found myself wishing that each chapter was told in first person instead, allowing the characters to speak for themselves. I feel first person narration would have added an additional layer of mystique to the plot. But instead, we get a somewhat creepy narrator who, for example, calls the boy's mother Marcella in some chapters and Ma in other chapters. It was confusing and distracting throughout the entire novel. The neighbor was called Ms. Sally in some chapters by the narrator and Mom in others. Huh?

Two: Spero could have used a really good line editor to help rework some awkward phrasing and word choices. For instance, there were dozens of references to stomachs performing flips and undulations, like this:

“His stomach flip-flopped... His stomach churned... His stomach betrayed him... His stomach turned... His stomach settled... Her stomach dropped... Ty's stomach heaved... Her stomach went wiggly... Hen's stomach lurched... Hen's stomach went fuzzy... His stomach got all twisty...”

An excellent line editor would have noticed this, as I did, and helped clean up these awkward redundancies. However, the novel was edited for misspellings and grammatical errors, because there were none, and the layout of the book was excellent and well-organized.

Ultimately, the story was well told and the concluding chapter—which featured the tense criminal trial of Tyler—and the epilogue—which wrapped up all the loose ends—was deeply affecting and thought-provoking. As a whole, this novel was very good, just not exceptional. I will keep an eye out for Spero's next novel. My only hope would be that she find an editor that help elevate the narrative text to the high level of her storytelling.

I would give this novel 3.5 stars.