Of Magpies and Men
By Ode Ray
The story opens in a harbor in Italy, where a boat carrying 2 dead bodies cashed into. Benedict Grant, who is apparently an insignificant detective, is the one investigating this case.
We get to know more about benedict’s past in the following chapters, how he lost his mother to terminal cancer and he was an unhappy person despite being rich and having a supposedly great life.
Marie is another character we get to know about, who is a nurse living in a trailer on a travelers site in Marseille, with his 7-year-old son. It is tough for Marie as she is financially struggling to bring up her asthmatic son. All she wants is to buy a house in a decent neighborhood with less pollution for her son to breathe easily and for them to live happily.
Marie and Benedict get to know each other when his mom dies, as they connect the story goes back and forth between Marseille and London.
Both characters have their own life struggles, and they are both trying to find a way to get what they want in life.
the story also alternates between these characters' past and present where we are trying to find the reason behind the dead bodies.
I enjoyed the characters and how Ode masterfully weaves these three different stories and brings it all together. This book is filled with drama, grief, love, and dry humor that was brilliantly penned. It is a very well-written debut novel, a page-turner and on top of that, the author's first published work.
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