Dan Rhodes‘ fourth book (including The Little White Car - writing as Danuta de Rhodes).
Gold is easy to read and well written, but I can’t say I enjoyed it as much as Timoleon Vieta Come Home, which brought tears to my eyes in places. Gold is a good read if you are looking for something to kill time on long journeys but it’s hard to put it in the same league as Dan’s impressive but depressing story of a dog.
I liked the way the characters were crafted; realistic, imperfect but lovable. I especially admired Dan’s attention to detail of the background characters. I warmed to Mr. Edwards even though he was a man of few words and ‘Holy Mackerel
‘ was the only line he had. Sceptic Barry’s dental nurse girlfriend had slightly more lines than Mr. Edwards and was often just a smiley face behind the bar, but I liked her all the same simply because of the clever dialogue Dan created.
Lastly, if Timoleon Vieta Come Home is a five-star novel, Gold probably deserves three stars as I like it for its realistic and charming characters.
