FROM THE OUTSIDE BY CLARE JOHNSTON
Paperback published by Urbane Publications 4th July 2019
When internet millionaire and philanthropist Harry Melville dies in a car crash at the age of forty four, the lives of his wife, Sarah, and twin brother, Ben, are thrown in turmoil.
Harry seemed to have it all, a close knit family and a happy marriage along with all the trappings of wealth. Yet as he recalls his past from the afterlif, a story emerges if the unspoken and bitter jealousies between brothers and of an unhappy wife burdened by loneliness and guilt.
When Ben takes over running of Harry’s charity foundation he begins to find purpose for the first time in years. But the arrival of a talented young artists brings a series of revelations that expose Harry’s complex and dual personality in full. As he learns his part in the suffering of those he left behind, is it too late for Harry to make amends?
MY REVIEW
When internet millionaire Harry Melville one morning loses control of his car he dies in a car crash on the M8, he is having an outer body experience, watching over people trying to see if his lifeless body was breathing. He watches over his wife Sarah, and Ben his twin brother, and looking at everyone at his funeral.
The truth was Harry Jonathan Melville and Ben were twins, but similarities between the pair were very different, they didn’t have that much in common. Harry was a man who cared about futures of young people. At 39, Harry set up his own Youth Foundation to help disadvantaged teenagers get on a career path. Now Ben is going to take over Harry’s charity.
I can promise you all this story is Unputdownable with Harry narrative throughout watching his wife and brother and feeding us through the past to what is happening at the present time.
Wow ! what a story one that I simply cannot forget and makes me question can the dead really watch over us.
This story is about regret and redemption in this life and the next . From the Outside explores the futile rivalries that destroy siblings relationships, and the lost chance for happiness when ego takes control.
A story about outer body experience that you will never forget, very much like Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.
ABOUT CLARE JOHNSTON
You can find Clare Johnston
Twitter Clares_j
Clare Johnston is a journalist and content specialist and a frequent contributor on radio having appeared on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour , The Kay Adams Programme and comedy satire show Breaking the News on BBC Radio Scotland.
She is former editorial director of Press Association Scotland and weekly columnist with the Daily Record newspaper, and is now Commercial Editor with the DC Thomson publishing group.
Her first novel, Polls Apart, was published by Thames River Press in October 2011
A second novel, From the Outside, published by Urbane Publications in July 2019.
Clare writes the novels she loves to read with the essential ingredients of pace, emotion, twists and a number of fable-like elements to really get readers thinking about the characters and what can be learned from them.
Bookread2day 