Friends Or Foes??

This post is dedicated to Rekha of Book Decoder fame as she had expressly stated that she would try out Logan only after reading my review. So, here it is.

Four besties, (accompanied by their families), who have known each other half their lifetimes decide to spend an extravagantly planned holiday in a jaw dropping French Villa in the village of Autignac amidst intoxicatingly flavoured vineyards rolling into dense woods. The occasion – celebrating their fortieth year on planet Earth. Let’s meet each of them and their family:

Kate married to Sean parents to Daniel and Lucy

Jennifer married to Alistair parents to Jake and Ethans

Rowan married to Russ parents to Odette

Izzie (unmarried)

The foursome have tangled relationships. Jennifer was Sean’s girlfriend in College. Sean and Izzie were childhood friends – both Irish and belonging to City of Limerick. Kate was all along in love with Sean even when he was with Jennifer. In fact, when Sean realized Kate’s intense feelings for him, he left Jennifer for her. Kate blames herself for Mark’s (Izzie’s fiancé’s ) death and Jennifer and Sean’s break-up. Jennifer is now an obsessively devoted mother. Alistair, her husband, is a professional counselor, who treats everyone, including his own children, as psychological objects of clinical analysis. Rowan is highly ambitious and is looking forward to a million dollar deal with a Concern (of a super rich father and son duo) who are deeply into Christian faith and will even back off from the business alliance if Rowan’s antecedents (both personal and corporate) are found not scrupulously clean. Russ, Rowan’s husband, suspects that Rowan is having an illicit affair but with whom he does not know. Izzie also has now got a partner, someone to live for, but she is keeping it all hush-hush.

Coming to the children. Daniel is in his growing age aiming to be a sensational You Tuber. He spends most of the time taking videos of the Villa and the families in his Dad’s Camcorder. Daniel also craves to be a part of Jake-Ethan team. Lucy is sixteen, a budding beauty, emotional and secretive. Jake and Ethan are a pair of dangerous teens trying out their boundaries as they move on to adulthood. Lucy, Jake and Ethan are in the same school. Jake has a huge crush over Lucy and follows her “with his tongue hanging out”. Odette is a spoilt, attention-seeking child whose parents are more engrossed with their phones than her.

Does not appear to be a very likeable scenario for an enjoyable vacation and as is anticipated, trouble brews as soon as the families land in the Villa. Kate, accidently reads Sean’s mobile messages from one Coral Girl which obviously prompts her to suspect that her husband is having an affair with one of her besties. Who is it? She is determined to find out. Russ, in a drunken state, confesses to Kate that Rowan is having an extra-marital dalliance but with whom he does not know. Alistair stalks both his sons’ social networking sites under fake identity but Kate is horrified to find out that he stalks Lucy too the same way. Sean is ill at ease and awkward when Jennifer and Izzie are around. He is also “too close” with Rowan on one occasion (in Kate’s presence). Jennifer, on the other hand, chases her sons like a super possessive mother, especially, when Lucy is with them. Kate, who is a professional crime investigator, is in a quandary. Who to trust? Who to suspect? What are her besties’ secrets? What is Alistair up to ? What is Lucy hiding? Why is she so shaky? To her Jake and Ethan do not seem like “normal” kids. Their experiments, jokes and games are over dramatic, nay, weird, more so, when they involve little Daniel in their crazy, kooky life endangering ploys.

The vacation is for a week but as the days progress the atmosphere charges up with suspicion, betrayal, mistrust, guilt and hostility. Its sooner over the better. But does Kate know that there is one amidst them who is a killer so deadly that there’s no way she can avoid the catastrophe. She has all the evidence which points at her husband whom she had once loved and still loves madly. She sees her marriage falling apart like a pack of cards. She does not know how she will handle this heart wrenching separation. What will she tell Lucy who is in the delicate cusp of teen and adulthood? How will she manage her adorable but fatherless son Daniel? Above all, how will she forgive her treacherous, disloyal husband turned infidel? Where did she go wrong? Is she paying for her past sins?

T. M. Logan craftily ladles a cauldron of suspense into a cyclonic stir as though a master is orchestrating a stormy symphony octave after octave to its crescendo. When ? When ? When ? Who ? Who ? Who ? Why ? Why ? Why ? As the maestro plucks his instrument the strings go berserk pulling the readers along with its almost satanic chants unstoppable, unignorable, cluelessly wandering amidst such maddeningly flawed characters – their fears, their insecurities, their shame and their lunacy taking turns to edge towards massacre so devastating, so life changing and so unforgivably harrowing.

Here it is for you all. “The Holiday” is so unimaginably tension-ridden that even readers will not be able to remain detached or untouched from its overwhelming turbulences and friends will think twice before vacationing together.

This is my first Logan. Taking my time to move on to the next as I am still not fully out of the hurricane of lies, deceits and conundrum of conspiracies ( a few questions do remain unanswered). But sure I am trying my level best not to egg on towards the next soon enough. You know why? If I do then I will forget all my other To-Dos of daily household chores and remain shamelessly hooked to it.

Exerting my Will to the Utmost…

Rekha…..