Blog Tour: Don’t Ask by Paul Carroll

Released: 19/04/2021

Publisher: Matador

Genre: Contemporary fiction

Buy link: Click here for hive link

Blurb:

A DNA ancestry test opens up a Pandora‘s box of secrets.

When Elsa Watson uses a DNA ancestry test kit out of idle curiosity, she little imagines the devastating consequences she is about to unleash.

Two families become reluctantly entwined as inconvenient truths and long suppressed memories resurface.

A whodunnit with a difference, Don’t Ask visits the glam rock seventies, Britpop, Operation Yewtree and #metoo within it’s alternating past and present chapter structure.

Don’t Ask explores the true meaning of family and the wisdom of raking up the past.

I’ll admit I was hopeful but wary of this book, due to the controversial themes dealt with.

I’ve always loved music, and the promise of a narrative that flowed back and forth through various iconic decades was too exciting to pass up.

I wasn’t disappointed.

The story weaves it’s way through a plethora of characters and time scales, pulling the threads together and teasing you to read on. It was so well written that I didn’t even stop to think who I was following, I just wanted to know more as the threads organically wove together.

The way the plot unfolded brought so many character’s viewpoints into the mix and allowed the story to be told with insight, curiosity, honesty and heart.

The ending was incredible for so many reasons that I obviously won’t share here (no spoilers) and it’s made me eager to try more from this author as this was the first title I’d come across. Thank you so much to Anne Cater for inviting me to review this, and to Paul Carroll and Matador for sending me a copy for review.

If you enjoy a family drama that deals with heavier topics, please give this one a try. A thought-provoking and insightfully written novel that I adored.