One Kind Man

I loved this book and hope you do as well. Finn a married man waiting for the arrival of their first child and a good Policeman a great life, then his wife dies along with their unborn child. A heart broken man falls pieces then after a few years tramping Finn is shocked to discover he has inherited his Uncle's House also money and then on top of it all he finds the most amazing addition to his life but i don't want to ruin the surprise. This is very much a stand alone novel if you haven't read "One Quiet Lady" which is also a fantastic book and a shame not to read. There is lots of suspense, action and some romance it is one of those books you truly won't want to put to down.

I hadn't read the first book in this series so bought that in order to have better continuity. I thoroughly enjoyed that too. One Kind Man follows on the story with the same amiable characters. I had thought Jonah might be the kind man as I had a soft spot for him in the first Ellindale book but it turned out to be Finn, an ex-police from the last book who is the kind man. The book is set in a south Lancashire village in 1931. The community spirit and spontaneous actions of the villagers amaze me. I loved some of the historical facts about telephone and utility cables being made available to the village. I always wondered when they were introduced. The sad thing about this story is the revelation that although there's technology and medical advances all these years hence a lot of things have still not changed in the north. Unemployment, homelessness, cuts, abuse of children in or out of care, corrupt banks and governments. It remains the forgotten north as ever. Apart from those living in "Benefits Street" there are people who genuinely experience hardship through broken relationships, illness and redundancy and want to work. But there's not much work in the north with all the dead industries - shipyards, coal and tin mines, steelworks, woollen mills closed to mention a few. The powers that be frown in disdain and claim it's their own fault and they should find work which is a typical simplistic way of looking at an impoverished society. I was interested in the means testing and now we have the bedroom tax and food banks while money is being frittered elsewhere to less deserving causes or in the wrong pockets. Reverting back to the book it's a quiet, friendly village but there are a few dramas which are handled by an inadequate, underfunded police force. There are amateur bungling crooks and brave take-you-on villagers. I loved the Reggie-Finn theme enormously as well as the milk churn idea and the love stories. There were a lot of loose ends so I look forwards to the next one in the series. The characters are becoming friends. Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stroughton