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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
In Judith Kendall’s The Tangled Web, railway payroll officer James McConnolly leaves Adelaide in December 1912 carrying the Christmas wages for the South Australian Railways, but never reaches his first delivery stop. His disappearance leaves his wife, Lizbeth, to rebuild her life in New Zealand while their son, Patrick, grows up in the shadow of a father accused of vanishing with a thousand pounds. As Patrick reaches adulthood, the unanswered case continues to shape every major turn in the family’s life, passing from one generation to the next. Decades later, Patrick’s daughter, Melinda, is drawn into the old mystery when new information points back to the day James went missing. Her search spans family history, official records, and old suspicions, as the question of what happened in 1912 returns.
Judith Kendall’s The Tangled Web takes its title from the century-long entanglement created when James vanishes. The novel is a sweeping family saga, showing us a young Patrick being uprooted to rural New Zealand, but welcomed by a prominent local who arranges violin lessons that shape Patrick’s adult life, and then a steadiness in Melinda, when she is elected Speaker of Parliament. Lizbeth is actually the most fascinating character to me, and I love how she builds an independent livelihood by managing a successful tea room in the township of Matawai, unwavering in her determination. The period details are spectacular, from the gaslit world of 1912 Adelaide to the formal interiors of New Zealand’s Parliament at the close of the twentieth century. With prose that sings and an immersive story, readers who enjoy intergenerational historical fiction, family mysteries, and mostly female-centered literary fiction will adore this book. Very highly recommended.
