BooklyBox: The Hunger Trace

The Hunger Trace

Edward Hogan

 

This month's book from BooklyBox was The Hunger Trace by Edward Hogan. This is not something that I probably would have picked up on my own, but I'm glad that it's been added to my read pile. If there's one thing I love about books, it's great character building and Hogan excelled in this respect. There wasn't too much of a story to be told, but more of relationships and personalities clashing and coming together.

  Overall, the book was pretty good but I didn't feel that there was much of a plot. The book opens to introduce us to one of our main characters, Maggie, who is a widow to her late husband David and has inherited his money-guzzling property and many wild animals. One of these wild animals is David's son, Christopher, who suddenly hates Maggie after his father's death and has some sort of mental incapacity.

Also on the property is David's childhood friend, Louisa, a falconer who is the talk of the town for being reclusive and snippy. Louisa loved David pretty much her entire life and watched his multiple wives come and go, and expected Maggie to do the same but she has to deal with the fact that she is not going anywhere.  

There are multiple twists and turns in the book, but I would say that this is something to read and focus on morality and values, as well as family and relationships. Although I couldn't help but think that the book didn't really have a point, I still enjoyed it. The ending did confuse me a little as it felt unfinished and didn't really explain what happened to everyone, but sometimes it's nice when authors do that because you find yourself thinking about where they would end up and are left to your own imagination to come up with a conclusion.