I am going to be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book after reading the blurb it was a really unusual concept but I found myself really enjoying Mike’s journey. I am voluntarily reviewing an advanced reader copy of this book.
Mike has set himself the rather bizarre challenge of sleeping with a hundred grieving women, now straight away he becomes a character that you judge and choose to dislike but I did quite like the fact that I wanted all the other supporting characters to be the ones that come out on top. To me Mike was thoughtless and a little narcissistic with the way that he doesn’t really see life in anything other than black and white and that the world revolved around him, he would on only keep people around while he had a use for them. I am not going to go into too much detail with this book for the reason that I don’t want to give too much away.
This was actually really easy to read and although that you don’t really want to engage with the main character and there is some really dark humour in here and the writing was pretty seamless I would definitely recommend this book. 4.3* Read
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Mike's Mourners
Pat Murray, author
Adult; General Fiction (including literary and historical); (Market)
Crazily, young Mike sets out on a mission to sleep with a hundred grieving women, unknowingly spurred on by dark events from his childhood. He happily continues on his quest, carefully keeping his activities from his girlfriend, Marie, and her wary family, until he comes across the widow of a local gangster. Although she temporarily throws him off track, he regains his focus with his project taking him as far as Seville and as close as his own doorstep. He knows he will never find lasting love from all the women he meets. Nor does he want to. That is, until he finds someone different. Someone special. But the course of true love is never going to be straightforward for Mike, especially when he realises who she is. The dark, amusing story moves at pace to a thrilling conclusion.
Reviews
Amazon.co.uk
4.0 out of 5 stars An unusual but enjoyable book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 May 2020
This book is in some ways hard to categorise, it has humour, it has dark noir thriller overtones, it has sex and it is a full bloodied mystery. And Mike as the main character is someone who in some ways you cannot help but like (occasionally), someone you emphasise with at times, completely abhor at other times but also wonder what his life will become as he is such a troubled sole. Everything to him is, as someone else has commented, black and white, which makes him at times unbelievably thoughtless. He is a really interesting character.
His task, to sleep with a hundred grieving women is an odd one, but one which he applies himself to. The characters we meet in the book along the way are interesting, realistic and believable, and support the story and Mike in his mission. It is an amusing, entertaining and ultimately an enjoyable book from an author I would certainly read more from.
goodreads.com
The premise of this book is unique. I’ve not read anything like it before. Interesting and different to what the title may suggest. Good characters with some background and body to them which makes you see people are not one dimensional. We are multi faceted human beings.
Mike is a troubled character. His past has shaped how he sees the world and how he perceives and interacts with his fellow beings. In his world it’s pretty much black and white although he does find varying shades trying to fight their way in. In Mike’s world you’re only good while he has his use for you. I wouldn’t say he was evil although thoughtless maybe more accurate. His world revolves around himself and everyone else is peripheral. He will use you to satisfy his own needs and desires.
The additional characters throughout the book blend in and are introduced and linked well when the timeline requires. The author has done a good job in describing and making the storyline link together with it’s individual storylines effortlessly meshing and criss crossing together when required. I love the way the author states where the various characters are at a any moment in time. It helps us readers feel grounded. There were times whilst reading it that I felt it would make a good tv series.
Reading the book was effortless and enjoyable. Seeing how far Mike’s luck would hold out. And seeing it run out of steam with the inevitable happening was the ‘oh my gosh’ moment that I love in my books.
I won’t spoil the storyline by telling the plot but this first novel, by a talented author, is well worth a read.
goodreads.com
This is a very unique story that follows the troubled and somewhat unlikeable character of Mike, a young man that has set himself an unusual quest, to sleep with 100 grieving women (as you do), while maintaining a relationship with his girlfriend Marie. Clearly, Mike has some issues. And so begins an amusing, disturbing and irritating yet satisfying story that is a little bit twisted and dark with a certain humour and realism that will appeal to a lot of readers, as long as you are happy to really dislike the main character (personally I quite enjoyed reading something where I was routing for everyone but the MC, it made a refreshing change). The story is very much character driven and Murray keeps that story flowing well by keeping the supporting characters present and the reader updated with them, providing a break from being in Mike's head and giving the reader hints of what is to come. At first these glimpses seem unnecessary but they all come together at the end, an ending that is superb and that I absolutely loved and that wraps things up beautifully
