I've no idea how Boyd keeps coming up with ideas for books that all seem different. This about Brodie Moncur a Scottish piano tuner in 1890s who ends up working for a piano manufacturer reviving the fortunes of their French showroom which is being embezzled by the son of the owner of the company. Brodie is double crossed and sacked and ends up touring Europe and Russia working with a concert pianist while having a secret affair with the pianists wife (?) As I was half-way through I had no idea where the story was going at all - whether it’ll be a happy ending or a disaster for Brodie

After finishing the book,; really enjoyed it but not sure whether there was a deeper meaning which I missed or whether the story was what it appeared on the surface. There were a couple of episodes which seemed like they would become significant in retrospect - e.g. when Brodie is chasing Malachi and gets distracted by an old man who’s fallen over and needs help. While giving assistance, Malachi escapes. The old man is effusively great full and you sort of expect that something will come of this, but it never does Didn’t really buy the explanation of Lika’s behaviour - why she returned to Malachi after Brodie seemed to have finally cracked the explanation of how Malachi was managing to follow them all over Europe, which should have meant they could have foiled any further pursuit.

There was a good explanation of TB, which I’d previously thought of as a kind of chest infection.

Completed : 28-Dec-2019