Night Music [Kindle Edition]

I got given 'Night Music' for Christmas, and after surprisingly enjoying both 'Foreign Fruit' and 'The Peacock Emporium' knew I wouldn't be disappointed by this book.

'Night Music' centres around the dilapidated 'Spanish House' in a tiny village where everyone knows everyone elses business. Builder Matt and his wife Laura have been coveting the house for years and when the elderly owner dies, they think they're in for a shot of inheriting it. They're in for a rude awakening.

In the entwining narrative Isabel Delancey, a violinist with a city orchestra, has just lost her husband in a car crash and he's left her with mounting bills and no way of paying them. Imagine her surprise when she finds out a long lost relative has left her The Spanish House... Isabel immediately moves there with her two children for a new start, not realising the disasterous wreck she's inherited. And so begins a story of intrigue and deceit- as it becomes clear just what a hold the Spanish House has in the tiny village.

This was truly a great read. It not only has drama and tension but a nice dash of romance too. Like all of Moyes other books, you quickly become involved in the characters lives and situations. I read it whilst commuting to work over a couple of days, but alternatively I think it would make a good holiday book.

Night Music is utterly `unputdownable'. Jojo Moyes immediately intrigues and involves us in the lives of the characters of Night Music and the circumstances that we find them in. This is confidently sustained as the plot twists and turns towards and away from our expectations.

Despite its charming setting, there is a vulgarity to `Spanish House' with it's `Moorish, Georgian, Victorian gothic' façade: Architecture that reflects the rather vulgar attempts of generations of occupants to impose their aspirations and assume superior status within the village. This is what Matt needed the house for, but as the events of Night Music reminds us, we should assume nothing in life.

The new owners of `Spanish House' are different: different needs and ambitions, which reveal different vulnerabilities and strengths. The house is no longer needed as a symbol of status, affirming a sense of self or worth. Unexpected events demand a reassessment of what is important in (and for) life, and `Spanish House' becomes a valuable space for learning to live.

Night Music is not a story of `goodies and baddies'. Rather, Moyes gently `unpicks' a tapestry of lives that make up the picture of `Spanish House'. She lets us see the complexity of making choices and decisions, particularly when one seems, to all intents and purposes, to be a victim of circumstances. Moreover, we see how in these choices - whether they are made knowingly or unknowingly - there are consequences that often stretch beyond our imaginations. It is in how the characters depicted in Night Music deal with the consequences associated with their lives that makes them all so very human.

Throughout Night Music, Moyes sustains great pace because of a subtle complexity that feels very `real' - as the reader you have to keep turning the pages because whilst you think you might know what is going to happen next, you're never quite sure...

What I really like about Jojo Moyes' books are that they are all so different, she certainly does not write to a formula, each book is very unique.

'Night Music' is a story about 'The Spanish House' - recently inherited by newly widowed Isabel and her two children. The last place they want to be is in an almost derelict house in a close-knit country village. Isabel is a successful violinist who doesn't get her hands dirty, her daughter Kitty is a sensible 15 year old who misses her friends and son Thierry has not spoken since his father was killed in a road accident a year ago.

The family have to get to grips with country living, with having no money, no water, no bathroom and no fridge. They also have to cope with Matt McCarthy - the local builder who was convinced that The Spanish House would be left to him and his wife Laura.

This is a great story of loss, bereavement and obsession. It has quite sinister undertones in places and the character of Matt is especially well created - starting out as the local friendly builder and gradually getting darker and more threatening as the story evolves.

Another triumph from one of my favourite authors.