Ok, so Braddock is hired to locate the mystery child of money magnate John Stone (he of the fall [both metaphorical and also out of a window]) in order to foist some inheritance on said child, but that the child exists is the sum total of information provided by the will and the lovely young widow has no ideas re: child. Salacious, right? Except for the ‘money magnante’ part, which sadly makes up much of this third of the novel and which gives me the zzzzzz’s because I do not understand how Business works.
But there is subterfuge and double-dealing and also Braddock digs the widow, so that was enough to frog-march me into Section 2. Which are the memoirs of a completely different guy. This guy knew John Stone and the lovely young widow back before they were wed (and the lovely young widow was lovelier and younger [this guy also digs the widow]) and there is MORE TALK OF MONEY because some sort of banking crisis lurks on the horizon and it’s Really Very Serious but much other shit goes down and there is a betrayal and by this point I was eating chips for dinner because I couldn’t stop reading long enough to boil noodles.
And then Section 3 is the last papers of The Stone himself, and for a long time they explain middling-to-nothing, and then at the last they explain everything and OOER ERM GEE. And maybe it’s because the novel is soooooooooo long and I was liking it but not loving it that those last pages boxed my ears. Guys, I want to just TELL YOU. And part of me balks at advising you to read a 600p book that I didn’t love, but for me? Worth it.
Eight caterpillars.