I really want to like the novels of Caroline Overington but don’t, somehow. Her latest The Lucky One is set somewhat inexplicably in California, an odd choice for an Australian journalist which adds nothing to the storyline but can possibly be put down to an attempt to woo American audiences. And who can blame her for that? The novel starts in a promising enough manner with an unexplained body dug up within an old cemetery on an estate being redeveloped. The innocence of the main character Eden contrasts nicely with the grasping nature of her many relatives but therein lies the problem – there are too many of them and they serve very little purpose. And apparently none of them are aware that SPOILER ALERT burying your grandfather yourselves without first obtaining a death certificate or even announcing his death to the outside world is more than likely to cause problems down the track. Kind of ludicrous, but if you can overlook that the ending delivers a nice sucker punch or two.
