Review: Debits and Druids

Debts and Druids by Diana J. Febry


This is a story about the secrets people keep and the high price they pay to keep them hidden. We have a small cast of characters: Bob, Tina, Duncan, Sarah and Dick.

Bob and Tina are married. He is a professor and she is a housewife obsessed with horses.Bob has been keeping the secret that they are in total financial ruin.Tina is blissfully ignorant and unaware.

Dick is Bob's highly eccentric friend who made some poor choices regarding his own finances and business ventures.

Duncan and Sarah are married. He's a veterinarian and she is not who she's been pretending to be for years.Sarah's secret will trump them all and put everyone on a collision coarse with tragedy.

The book started out a bit slow but it's worth continuing to turn the page. Each chapter gives us a different character's perspective and moves the story along while giving us little hints and details as to each persons motives. I felt that each character was interesting and complex with the exception of Tina. She felt a bit one dimensional and in my opinion, didn't contribute much in the way of the story until the end. She was a very self centered character and most of her chapters were spent talking about her horses. Now this may have been intentional on the part of the author, if so it was it well done because she made me dislike the character. If not, sorry I still disliked the character. hehe

I felt incredibly empathetic towards Bob. In this day and age he was very relatable given his financial woes.  With his creditors breathing down his neck, the threat of foreclosure on his home looming and his family blissfully in the dark he makes some poor decisions and is defiantly the catalyst for the story.

Dick was in interesting character although his role wasn't much more than to be a sounding board for Bob's troubles. Having once been a smart business man he becomes (for lack of a better term here) an earth muffin, right down to his open-toed sandals  I could picture this character so well in my mind that I almost giggled when he would make an appearance. I liked the character a lot though and always found the story more entertaining when he would arrive on the scene.

Sarah...whew...where to begin? Her chapters were my favorite. She was a very well written character and it was fascinating to watch her downward spiral  The author did a great job giving just tiny crumbs of her back story until I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know what she had done and what her huge secret was. The paranoia and the self-defense mechanisms employed within the characters arc were wonderful, especially when the risk of exposure looms threatening to destroy her life and family.

Overall I enjoyed this book. I liked that the characters had a very real word feel about them and it was plausible to believe these events could happen if someone had their back against a wall. I liked that the ending didn't conclude with sunshine and rainbows, there were no winners in this tale so don't be looking for a happy finale.It was an interesting read that I think most readers could enjoy.

Ciao!