3 out of 4 stars
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The novel End of Madness by Elizabeth Tebby Germaine is a thriller and the third book in a trilogy. The story is a love story about the main character Jonathan and his lover Pamela, with many twists and turns throughout.
The story starts with a mysterious scene in the Manor House where we find out that one character named Belinda has disappeared, and the other characters seem to be upset and distracted about one thing or another. Jonathan is the main character in the book, and he has recently accepted ownership of Manor House formerly owned by his best friend George. Jonathan is a former vicar and is searching for answers to his questions in the scripture and questions his faith constantly.
I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I felt like it was very hard to follow. Most of the narrative in the book was dialogue between characters and it was difficult to understand what was going on in the story. The book seemed to revolve around some mystery with Jonathan that I never really quite understood. It seemed as if he was battling against his own thoughts and trying to find answers that didn’t exist. I also never grasped what The Manor House was supposed to be, although the general vibe was that it was a disturbing place. Prior to Jonathan owning it there were some type of games involved, but Jonathan turned it into a refuge for misfits and single mothers. Several of the characters in the story were underdeveloped and I struggled to understand why they held any importance to the story. I also found several spelling errors throughout the book, which was distracting.
The part of the story I did enjoy was the love story between Jonathan and Pamela. It seemed like they really cared for each other, but because of various real and perceived barriers were not able to be together. Jonathan is a sensitive character who wanted to be able to help people but lost his focus somewhere in the book. I could feel his pain and struggle to fight his own mind, which was interesting to follow.
In summary, I think the book possibly would have made more sense if I had read the previous books in the trilogy. I think that would have made the characters more easily understood and the story would have been easier to grasp. I would recommend readers start at the beginning of the trilogy because I don’t think this book is meant to be a stand-alone.
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Ends of Madness
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