Greenwich Park

Helen Trope and her husband, Daniel, are expecting their first child in a matter of weeks, after a series of losses. At her childbirth class, which Daniel for work reasons can’t attend, Helen meets young, loud, tactless Rachel, who takes an immediate interest in Helen, and becomes the human version of cling wrap for the ensuing chapters, always seeming to be everywhere Helen is. For reasons that never make a single ounce of sense to me, Helen keeps enabling this dysfunctional “friendship”, putting strain on her relationships with Daniel, her brother Rory and his wife, Serena, her other brother, Charlie, and journalist friend, Katie.

Who is Rachel, and what’s behind her sudden appearance in these people’s lives? That’s the thread this book is pulling, suggesting there’s more to Helen’s insta-friend than meets the eye.

Katherine Faulkner’s debut novel, Greenwich Park is an admirable effort that gives me confidence she’ll have more enticing books to offer in the future. Her prose is vividly descriptive and atmospheric, giving me a feel for all the places this story took me to and engaging my senses, with the sights, sounds, smells and tastes being described. The plot is solid, despite some issues (more on that in a moment), and the overall writing is engaging.

That’s the good part. Unfortunately, I struggled quite a bit with other aspects of the book:

Length. It’s 384 pages, but feels much longer. Possibly because Faulkner’s career has been in investigative journalism, where detail reigns supreme, this was TOO detailed for me, slowing the pace to a crawl at times. I found myself looking at my reading progress A LOT and wondering why it felt like I wasn’t making any.

Characters. I liked Katie. That’s about it. The rest are pretty insufferable, each in their own ways. I dare you to find a character more annoying than Rachel. Go on. I’ll wait.

Believability. Helen and Daniel have wanted this baby for years, but the poor thing seems to be treated as an afterthought continually, while Rachel drama takes front and center. Daniel is, almost literally, never there, and Helen is constantly frustrated or put off by Rachel’s behavior, yet bends over backwards at every opportunity to help her, regardless of the cost to her marriage and family. NO. This just wouldn’t happen. The characters’ running motto should be: “Make stupid choices whenever possible.”

Pacing. No pregnancy has ever felt so long in the history of pregnancy.

Plot. I liked the plot well enough, but I could see pretty much every major reveal and how this would play out from very early on, so there was no “KAPOW!” moment that’s so fun in thrillers.

Despite that list of issues, I was still engaged with the story from start to finish, the writing itself is quite good, and for a debut, it’s a really solid effort to build from. I have no doubt Faulkner will work out the hiccups from this one and have even better books to offer in the future, and I’ll be in line for them! Be sure to check out other reviews before deciding on this. Plenty of readers are loving it!

★★★ ½