The Wednesday Letters

Reader reviewed by Dede

This book is about an older couple, Jack and Laurel, who die on the same night. They own a B&B and are loved and respected by everyone. Their death brings their three grown children back "home" for the funeral. The beginning is quite jumbled, discussing many different people before we are even sure who they are. One of the children, Malcolm, has been living on the run, in Brazil after a fight with two men after one of them tries to paw his ex-girlfriend, Rain. (They are still good friends.) Malcolm has been estranged from everything and everyone he knows since that night. Rain has a long time boyfriend when Malcolm comes back but we are told they still carry a torch for eachother. The author does not go into enough character depth for me to really believe this though. While the 3 adult children are grieving, they find boxes of letters their dad had written to their mom every Wednesday. A couple of the letters are hard to believe, because they go into very extensive detail about things Jack and Laurel had done together. These letters are from regular events, wedding night, if they were ever apart, apologies, secrets. The children learn things about their parents through these letters. There doesn't really seem to be a whole lot of direction in this book and you can pretty much see the ending coming from a mile off. The letters and the deceased parents are the most impressive part of this book. The letters are heartfelt, honest, and at times a little heartbreaking. The characters lack depth, there is no real feeling behind them and pretty much everything is explained too quickly and with a lack of warmth that would make this book very heartwarming.