A young,  promiscuous Shropshire lad finds what he thinks is love with an older woman. She helps him land a job as a porter in the hospital where she works. There, he forms relationships with emotionally vulnerable females  and sets about an unusual task of sleeping with a hundred grieving women! It all links with his troubled upbringing with his alcoholic mother. Will he achieve his weird goal? It’s a full-pelt, bouncing gambol of a story, which careers towards (with twists and turns on the way) a catastrophic end.

Reviews

The premise of this book is unique. I’ve not read anything like it before. Interesting and different to what the title may suggest. Good characters with some background and body to them which makes you see people are not one dimensional. We are multi faceted human beings.

Mike is a troubled character. His past has shaped how he sees the world and how he perceives and interacts with his fellow beings. In his world it’s pretty much black and white although he does find varying shades trying to fight their way in. In Mike’s world you’re only good while he has his use for you. I wouldn’t say he was evil although thoughtless maybe more accurate. His world revolves around himself and everyone else is peripheral. He will use you to satisfy his own needs and desires.

The additional characters throughout the book blend in and are introduced and linked well when the timeline requires. The author has done a good job in describing and making the storyline link together with it’s individual storylines effortlessly meshing and criss crossing together when required. I love the way the author states where the various characters are at a any moment in time. It helps us readers feel grounded. There were times whilst reading it that I felt it would make a good tv series.

Reading the book was effortless and enjoyable. Seeing how far Mike’s luck would hold out. And seeing it run out of steam with the inevitable happening was the ‘oh my gosh’ moment that I love in my books.

I won’t spoil the storyline by telling the plot but this first novel, by a talented author, is well worth a read.

Nora (www.goodreads.com)

This is a very unique story that follows the troubled and somewhat unlikeable character of Mike, a young man that has set himself an unusual quest, to sleep with 100 grieving women (as you do), while maintaining a relationship with his girlfriend Marie. Clearly, Mike has some issues. And so begins an amusing, disturbing and irritating yet satisfying story that is a little bit twisted and dark with a certain humour and realism that will appeal to a lot of readers, as long as you are happy to really dislike the main character (personally I quite enjoyed reading something where I was routing for everyone but the MC, it made a refreshing change). The story is very much character driven and Murray keeps that story flowing well by keeping the supporting characters present and the reader updated with them, providing a break from being in Mike's head and giving the reader hints of what is to come. At first these glimpses seem unnecessary but they all come together at the end, an ending that is superb and that I absolutely loved and that wraps things up beautifully.

Sam (www.goodreads.com)