Page Turners – May 2025 review
The Page Turners book for May was ‘Ordinary Thunderstorms‘ by William Boyd. This was first published in 2009.
The hero of the book is Adam Kindred who, after a chance encounter, finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and makes some split-second decisions that lead to his whole life unravelling. With the police and a hired killer searching for him he joins the homeless on the streets of London. His journey takes him along the Thames from Chelsea to the sink estates of the East End. On the way he encounters a range of other people also trying to reinvent themselves and we explore the reasons why some people may find themselves in such difficult circumstances and the lengths they may go to in order to make a new life. At the same time we are treated to a tale of corruption in big business and Adam must find a way to do the right thing without compromising his own safety.
Most of us found this well written and intelligent thriller to be a real page turner, although one of us would prefer not to read quite such depressingly realistic stories. We liked the short chapters which focussed on different characters and aspects of the narrative and allowed the story to move forward on different fronts without confusion. This was a book by a man and about a man and that is perhaps why the descriptions of the hero did not include enough emotions for some, but overall we enjoyed the cast of characters and the familiar location.
We questioned the wisdom of the decisions Adam made early in the book but recognised that they were necessary to the story – this didn’t stop of us wondering how things would have unfolded if he had made different choices! He disappointed us again towards the end, showing a degree of moral corruption but on the whole we were satisfied with the ending. We could envisage David Tennant in the lead role of a six part television series!
Most of us are keen to try other books by William Boyd. If you would like to start with this one, do get in touch as some of us have copies to share.
Deborah