The Forgiven by Lawrence Osborne

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


2.5 stars.

The book jacket says, "David and Jo Henniger...in search of an escape from their less than happy lives in London, accept an invitation to attend a bacchanal at their old friends' home, deep in the Moroccan desert. But as a groggy David navigates the dark desert roads, two young men spring from the roadside, the car swerves...and one boy is left dead."

The story deals with the aftermath of that accident. It sounds like it should be a page turner, right? Alas, it was not. For me anyway.... Instead, I would read a bit and then put it down and not return to it for several days. I didn't look forward to reading it, yet, was determined to finish to see how it turned out.

It's well written but there is too much detail that didn't seem necessary. The story deals with (really) unpleasant people and morality and probably could have been a really good short story if the author edited himself.

p.s.  I didn't appreciate the author's repeated use of the words, "sluts" and "whores," by all of the characters in the book, including the female characters.  What was that about?!