Not the End

by Kate Vane

An alternate cover for this ASIN can be found here.

This is the story of a drowning, a heatwave and a painting that shouldn’t exist.

The death of octogenarian sea swimmer Maud Smith doesn’t excite much interest in the Devon seaside town of Dormouth, but it changes the lives of three people she never met.

Insomniac Brenda, walking her dog on the beach at dawn, finds Maud’s body and loses a husband. Now her house is falling down.

Jim, reluctant Londoner and heir hunter, loves birds, fresh air and suddenly, Maud’s neighbour. Maud’s tangled past with a local artist might just change his future, but he has a mortgage on a basement and a woman who’s not ready to let go.

Cemetery manager Neil clears Maud’s flat then promptly moves in. He attends the funeral and flirts at the wake but can’t fully account for a painting missing from her estate.

Maud may be dead, but it’s not the end yet…

Genres: Death

360 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

I worked as a probation officer in Leeds for a number of years. I started writing crime fiction because I thought made-up criminals would be easier to manage (I was wrong).

As well as writing novels, I have written for BBC drama Doctors and my short stories and articles have appeared in various publications and anthologies, including Mslexia and Scotland on Sunday.

I’ve always loved the sea, and now live on the beautiful south Devon coast. If I’m not reading or writing, I’m probably in the garden.
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For the latest on my writing, go to katevane.com where you can sign up for my newsletter.

Reviews

[Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kate Vane's novel, Not the End, centers around the death of a former muse to a local painter in a shore town, perhaps a typical Devon vacation spot. Connected to this death, there is also a mystery: did the deceased, herself a painter, have a valuable painting by her then-lover painter, and if she did, where is it now? Several people are directly involved in the potential existence of this painting: the cemetery director who oversees the burial/cremation of the deceased, the probate officer who is supposed to assess the possessions of the deceased and find those who may be eligible to inherit them, and a local academic who is writing a career-defining book about the painter. In addition to some pertinent characters that surround these three, several that directly connect to the deceased painter, a young artists who was friends and neighbors with the deceased, the woman who discovered the dead body on the beach, and the widow of the famous painter, play important parts in the story. All in all, there are quite a lot of characters and storylines that weave in and out of the main plot, making Not the End a rich, at times a bit chaotic, novel.

Vane writes well, drawing out the sublime from the daily toils of ordinary people like cemetery directors, probate officers, divorcees and bachelors, and the elderly. The hopes, dreams, and failures of the young, middle aged, as well as the seasoned characters are laid bare in just a few well placed and aptly paced vignettes that always serve some purpose to further the plot or story. Perhaps the most profound observations come from Brenda, the woman who discovers the dead body on the beach on the day her husband of many years leaves her for unknown reasons. Her life, like the lives of the other main characters, is intimately sliced in transparent bits for close examination, but always with kindness and agility.

To tie it all in when there is so much going on is sometimes difficult, but Vane pulls it off. The end is more the continuation of life as we know it, while not much happens, but things happen all the time. Overall, Not the End strikes a balance between the contemplative and the impulsive.

Recommended for those who like real estate hunting, home improvement, swimming in the ocean, dogs, paintings, nosy neighbors, weddings and tea.

Thanks to LibraryThing and the author for a copy of the novel in exchange for my honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[Darlene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh. I am so sorry. I tried. I really did. I read every little bit of this book. And I was given this book by the author for an honest review. But, all I could come up with, is 2 stars, which on GoodReads means 'it's okay'. I'll adjust accordingly on Amazon's star rating to the 'okay' standing.

The writing was not as bad as many I have seen lately, but it left a lot to be desired. I never got to the point that I liked any of the characters enough to feel engaged. Sometimes by turning on the text-to-speech feature (in this case in Moon Reader Pro) and placing it on a high enough speed to still be best understood without sounding like a chipmunk, I can get past boring or confusing parts. Well, not so much this time.

Oh, and speaking of characters... Wow! this had a country full of populous. So many points of view that I couldn't keep track. Often the fast reading speed gets me to the part of a book where I know who is who. Nope. At the end, I still was confused as to who was in lust with Elizabeth. Who was the twin to Roisin. And the lesser characters were even more confusing.

Maybe it is just me. Probably. But I just didn't feel anything about the story or people. Look, if it's any consolation, it took me forever to tell the difference between Rob and Jon in the TV series, Game of Thrones. Now having watched it a million times I have them separated. But, show either of those actors in another context and I get them confused again. AND what makes me frustrated was wondering, if this was my story how would I change it? I couldn't figure it out. A picture book with names and personal histories on the side?

Oh, and how did the death of the woman at the beach change anyone? They all seemed pretty messed up even in the end. I'm so, so sorry I couldn't offer more. But thank you for letting me read your book, Kate Vane. I'm sure others out there will love it. Good luck in your future writing. I do think you have the chops.

[Melanie Page · Rating 2 out of 5]

"...If it sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. Kate Vane takes on a lot in Not the End—a lot-a lot. The three main characters who are supposed to be changed by Maud’s death, according to the Amazon synopsis, are Neil, Jim, and Brenda. Since the novel begins with Neil in Maud’s flat, one is led to believe that the focus will be on Maud or her burial or estate. Rather, readers bounce between Jim’s, Brenda’s, and Neil’s perspectives (and some chapters are from the perspectives of others, like Fraser’s short moment in the sea), and though Vane creates whole little worlds for each, keeping all of their motivations straight is difficult because each of these three main characters bring in additional characters. Jim’s co-worker Bert is a man who diligently takes dump at the same time each morning at work (a funny detail!) only for Bert to be referenced one more time about 150 pages later. Teri, who also works with Jim, is a woman who wants every man to worship her despite her husband being deployed (also funny: Teri nearly kills herself by getting her hair too close to the paper shredder). The connection to Brenda finding Maud’s body is interesting, but the story of Brenda doesn’t seem as if it were meant to be connected to Maud; Brenda’s focus is Robbie, Paula, Callum, Bob, Tony, her dog Prince, etc...."

Read the full review at Grab the Lapels

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Welcome to the English seaside. Someplace I have always wanted to visit and now thanks to Kate Vane's lovely descriptions I feel like I have.

Meet Maud - she's 88 and she's dead. Her death is the spark that sets this story in motion.

There is Neil, the cemetery manager in charge of Maud's funeral. There is Brenda, who found Maud's body washed up on the beach. There is Elizabeth, who was Maud's friend and neighbor. And then there is Jim, the probate researcher who has a thing for Elizabeth. There is also Roisin, Jim's needy boss who is in the midst of planning a civil ceremony with her difficult partner Melissa. Oh and let's not forget Edie, Jim's mentally unstable twin.

As you can see there is a huge cast of characters and I didn't even list them all. In the beginning I found this to be a bit daunting and confusing. But as the novel progressed it was clear that they all had a part to play. They were very well developed and by the end I felt like I knew them all.

As you can imagine with all these strong characters there are quite a few heavy topics to explore. There are marriage breakdowns, sibling feuds, mental illness, and marriage equality issues. Vane handles these with just enough humor and lighthearted moments to make this a thoroughly enjoyable read.

I was sad to leave these characters and I feel like they have more story to tell. I hope it's Not the End for them.

e-galley kindly provided by author in exchange for an honest review

[Karen Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

The death of an eighty eight year old woman, Maud Smith is the catalyst for the events in Not the End as in turn we are introduced to Neil, the cemetery manager who is responsible for her funeral, Brenda, the woman who found her body washed up on the beach, Jim, the probate researcher, Elizabeth, Maud's neighbour and Olive, her former love rival.
Slowly their lives become entangled as we learn more about them and their families. This isn't a whimsical fluffy story set in a seaside town, it's a look at real lives and what makes them so complicated at times, marriage breakdowns, sibling relationships, mental illness, deception, jealousy, hope, fear, friendship and love all feature here. Although she never actually appears in the novel, Maud still affects each of them in different ways and often influences the decisions they make. We don't actually discover much about her later life and death but there are revelations about her past which have an impact on a few of the characters.
There are a lot of story threads here and although they often intertwine it did take a while to feel I really knew the characters and occasionally I found myself needing to check back to remind myself particularly who lesser characters were and I warmed more to some characters and their storylines more than others. However, once I had a grip on who was who I enjoyed Not the End very much. It's a thoughtfully written and often poignant without being sentimental look at the often complex lives of ordinary people. Despite the sometimes serious subject matter however, it's not a depressing read, there are enough lighthearted moments to keep the overall feel of the book a positive read and I think one that many people would enjoy adding to their summer reading pile.
Many thanks to the author for my copy of this book in return for my honest review.

[Kath · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the blurb says, this book revolves around Maud and how her death affects three people (or sets of people) that she never met...
It is a book where the main character only appears posthumously. She is merely the catalyst that ignites and influences the stories of several other people that are indirectly connected to her by virtue of her death, and it is these people, and their friends/family/acquaintances that we read about in the rest of the book bringing them from the background into the foreground as they develop from bit-part to co-main character status!
In this way the book comes across sometimes as episodic. It takes you through highs and lows, love, heartbreak, quite a few tears and some pretty funny laugh out loud moments. Although it is quite light-hearted overall, the author does introduce some quite heavy topics, mental illness for one, but this is done in a way that doesn't drag the overall tone of the book down.There are also quite a few "I remember him/her/them/that" moments...

The characterisation is fantastically imaginative in parts and this works extremely well. The only criticism I would have would be the quantity of character which I admit I did struggle with initially as they were all introduced to me quickly, but after they were completed and became more "real", they were easy to get along with. Spelling, grammar (to the best of my knowledge) and formatting were all spot on.

As the book featured so many interesting characters, there is plenty of potential for future continuation and I, for one, would be up for reading more about these people.

[Francene Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given an ARC of this novel in return for an honest review. I must admit, I took a long time to read the novel.

This extremely well written book left me floundering in a sea of incidentals. The multitude of crazy character's are hard to distinguish at the start. One third of the way through, I still hadn't grasped who everyone was in the glorious, rambling script which swept me to a dreamland full of fractured thoughts. Yet, the plot kept me fascinated—unable to look away, as if I was hanging on to the flying mane of a charging steed. With the use of the written word, instead of a brush and canvas, the author daubs colours, patterns and thoughts to build a picture.
What I liked was the unusual aspect of the way each character's mind side-tracked them.
What I didn't like was my own inability to pin down the various characters and their relationships to each other. Put that down to old age and distractions. This is a worthy book.