Strawberry Gold

Strawberry Gold is a thriller novel, but a rather cozy one.

How can a thriller be cozy, you might ask? 

Well, there is a lot of action, most of it takes place years ago. The story follows Pat Kowalski and his family, all the way back to his great-grandmother. Sections of the story are told by the great-grandmother about things that happened in her lifetime. While some of the stories involve crime and the death of her husband, her retelling of the story in a retirement home softens the edge of them, which I enjoyed.

Pat has been given an assignment to do an oral history, which he works on with his great-grandmother, hence, the telling of the stories mentioned above. When Pat learns the existence of this money, he goes on a quest to find it. His grandmother dismisses the stories as nonsense and says her mother has lost her mind. This is a recurring theme in the story where the great-grandmother shares an interesting tidbit about her past, and the rest of the family (excluding Pat) dismisses it as nonsense. 

The story switches perspectives from Pat, the primary protagonist, to a few others, from classmates to figures in his family's past. One of the perspectives is a general contractor of sorts who faces a protest on a building he wants to tear down. Things only get worse for him when they find decayed corpses under the building, further delaying the project. While it is a little morbid, I thought it played out a bit humorously. 

Another perspective shown is the death of a man carrying gold. Where is the gold? Meanwhile, in the present, Pat’s father passes away, leaving him and his mother completely destitute. The bank begins to foreclose on his family’s home, and Pat’s family is not in a position to help. 

The book also has perspectives from Vince, a classmate of Pat’s, who is something of an antagonist or foil to Pat. Vince also learns about the gold and seeks to win it for himself and his family. His father’s bank is failing, and happens to be the bank foreclosing on Pat's family (isn’t that neat?). 

The writing style of the book was enjoyable to me. There are quite a few witty lines, which I think generally flow better in the context of the book. I will leave it to you rather than butcher them here. The characters of the book are also well developed; they have quirks and are true to life. The book also depicts finance quite well and how a bank operates. The attention to detail in the book is quite impressive.

The book reads pretty quickly and is a fun treasure hunt mixed with legal battle, mob story, and more. If you enjoy fun genre-bending work with witty dialogue and writing, this is a good book for you. 

Perspective: The book moves between first and third person.

Tense: past

Length: 279 pages 

Kindle Unlimited: No

https://www.amazon.com/Strawberry-Gold-Chris-Gerrib-ebook/dp/B0DJDFSP14