The Ruinous Sweep

by Wynne-Jones Tim

A rainy night. An empty highway. And no memory. From award-winning author Tim Wynne-Jones comes a riveting murder mystery that will keep readers enthralled until the last page.

On the night Donovan Turner is thrown out of a car on a highway in the middle of nowhere, he can barely remember his own name, let alone the past twenty-four hours. Where is he? Where is his girlfriend, Bee? In an attempt to flag down the next passing car, he startles the driver, causing a fatal accident. With sirens in the distance and the lingering feeling that he’s running from something — or someone — Donovan grabs the dead driver’s briefcase and flees. Meanwhile, Bee is fighting for Dono’s life every bit as much as he is. But when the police show up and hint that he is the prime suspect in a murder, Bee is determined to put together the pieces of what happened and clear his name. With echoes of Dante’s Divine Comedy, this harrowing journey through hell and back is a page-turning tale of guilt, retribution, love, and redemption.

• ISBN10: 0763697451
• ISBN13: 9780763697457
• Publish Date: 26 June 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Candlewick Press,U.S.
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 400
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780763697457

Reviews

[Eve1972]

Before I started reading this one I wanted to take a peek at a few reviews and get a general feeling about the book. I saw that this book was getting mostly negative attention, and after skimming a few of them, I was more than a little tentative to start it. However, I ended up liking this one a lot. The story had me hooked right from the beginning.





Oh, sure there were parts that were a bit confusing and chaotic (especially the sections told from Donovan's POV). And parts that I am still not entirely sure I understand. I am assuming Donovan's journey is supposed to resemble Dante’s Divine Comedy, but since I haven't read that since high school English Lit, the symbolism was a bit lost on me. Nevertheless, I still found myself pulled into the story. I especially loved Bea and her determination to find out what really happened to Dono. I also loved that was set in Ontario my home province, and not particularly far from where I grew up.

So yea, it wasn't a perfect book, and I can certainly understand some of the issues other reviewers have brought up in their reviews. However, for me, this was a case of the plot being intriguing enough that the good outweighed the bad. Therefore I am going to give this one two thumbs up.