Author: Liza Klaussman
First Published: July 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
269 pages (eBook)
I’m not really sure what caused me to pick up this novel to read. I first saw it at the bookstore, and quite liked the cover. Reminded me a bit of The Great Gatsby. The title was also quite intriguing — tigers in red weather? What could that mean? Anyway, I eventually got the novel and read it. While at first I was kind of “meh” about it, the story really grew on me and I ended up really liking it. I have been ruminating on the story ever since I finished it — so much betrayal, guilt, love and lust. Everyone’s hiding something, from someone else or from themselves. It starts off rather light hearted but snowballs into an intense drama.
Tigers In Red Weather is a story set in the mid 40’s to late 50’s time period. It spans two decades, give or take, and follows five main characters. The novel is split into five parts, one for each of them. Nick (who is a woman — that threw me off in the beginning, when I didn’t realize she was a woman) and Helena are cousins and best friends. They enjoy spending their summers at Tiger House, a family-owned estate. Their life seems perfect, what with the ending of World War II approaching: Nick’s husband, Hughes, is coming back from war and Helena is soon to marry her own husband and move to glamorous Hollywood.
However, life is not as wonderful and perfect as it seems. Hughes has come back a changed man and Helena’s husband, Avery, is a sly and untrustworthy figure. A decade later, the cousins reunite at Tiger House, now each with their own child: Daisy (Nick’s) and Ed (Helena’s). They throw a party, not knowing that that night, everything in their lives was going to change. A murder happens, the victim being the maid of a neighbour’s, and everyone’s secrets and guilts begin to leak out, spanning another decade.
The story does not move forward in time in a straightforward manner. It generally moves in one direction, but also hops backwards into the past and then back into the present, and occasionally into the future. This created a very suspenseful atmosphere in the book, although at first I didn’t realize there was a ‘mystery’ involved so I didn’t understand why we were jumping around time so much. Besides suspense, there is also an element of horror although I would not go so far to classify it as horror. More of a “something is not quite right” element, really. It’s not evident at first. It kind of creeps up on you. At first you don’t think anything is off, just a little odd. Then you have a sense something is not quite right, which slowly but surely makes you feel kind of chilled, until at last the truth comes out. Perhaps sharper readers would have caught on earlier to the truth/secret, but I did not see it coming and when it was all revealed, I was quite surprised because when I first started the book, I had no idea it would head in such a dramatic direction!
I liked this book because I felt it struck a good balance between character development and plot, not too much or too little of either. The characters in particular were lovely. Each one was flawed in their own unique way, fighting their own demons. It’s definitely a grim story despite the summery-looking book cover. The characters are all miserable but hiding behind lies they’ve told themselves (or things they have convinced themselves of being the truth). It’s just all very well done in my opinion, the characters all captured my interest one hundred percent. In particular, Ed was fascinating and what compelled me to keep reading because he seemed to be the biggest mystery of all. He was the last perspective introduced in the story so you don’t get to find out his thoughts and feelings until the end, so for the longest time, I was just guessing as to why Ed was the way he was, and what really happened that midsummer night with the maid’s murder.
Tigers In Red Weather is a fascinating read and if the plot synopsis sounds interesting to you, I’d definitely recommend you check it out.
My Rating: 4/5
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