Book Review - Before You Know Kindness

Cover blurb - On a balmy July night in New Hampshire a shot rings out in a garden, and a man falls to the ground, terribly wounded. The wounded man is Spencer McCullough. The shot that hit him was fired - accidentally? - by his adolescent daughter Charlotte. With this shattering moment of violence, Chris Bohjalian launches the best kind of literate page turner: suspenseful, wryly funny, and humane. 

Before You Know Kindness is an interesting read with a lot of family dynamics, underlying turmoil, and a key question. Was the shooting an accident or not?  What really happened?  Charlotte and her cousin Willow spent summers at their grandmother's home. Privilege, money, spoiled youth. Not everything is as it seems.  Nor is the marriage of Spencer and Catherine what it seems on the outside. True of so many marriages, there's underlying strife and disconnect.

Catherine's brother, John, is a lawyer and not the biggest fan of Spencer. But it's family and it's small town and that's a big deal.

I can't say I was a fan of Spencer or necessarily many of the characters. The plot was interesting and I wanted to find out what happened, but I was able to put the book down. I felt it moved a tad slow. I read the book this summer and it was a good pool read in between dunks. And, as always, a gun laying around - is it loaded for trouble?  Hmmm......