Has mediocre hairdresser Lucy Rey just stumbled across the perfect wanted ad that will free her from a job she hates and a cheating boyfriend, or is there more to this post that has turned up on her social media feed?
Bearer of Bad News follows Rey from a miserable life in Las Vegas on an unexpected journey to the Italian mountains, where she’s been offered a job that seems too good to be true and turns out to be much more complicated and personal than she ever expected.
The book opens with a series of disasters. Rey, living in Sin City, struggles to give highlights to an annoying client, employment she takes primarily to support her boyfriend’s fledgling acting career. The Hollywood wannabe gets caught making out with a celebrity while he is supposed to be auditioning for a role and Rey flees an apartment she hates for her best friend’s couch.
An ad on Instagram promises a solution to all of her problems: quick money and a trip to Europe. The catch is that Rey must be a bearer of bad news, delivering some unpleasant information to the sister of her new employer.
The reader quickly realises that more is going on than Rey’s personal crises. Interspersed in the story is a series of letters and documents about a missing necklace, related to Rey’s wealthy and famous grandmother and the Nazi regime.
The book is funny. Rey is a kleptomaniac, stealing small trinkets from everyone from her hairdressing clients to influencers filming TikToks in the Italian mountains. The habit gets her into trouble and a confrontation with the aforementioned influencer goes viral, revealing Rey’s relationship with her glamorous grandmother.
As with any story connected to the Second World War, there is a painful history for Rey to unravel and she must grapple with her own insecurities and shortcomings in the process.
The book drops the reader into the middle of the action and does not slow down. A lot happens, from a variety of comedic tangents to multiple love interests. Occasionally the book gets unfocused, trying to marshal all of the various events towards a conclusion.
The book is the debut work from author Elisabeth Dini, who hails from the US but now lives in The Hague. She moved to the Netherlands to work as a prosecutor for the International Criminal Court but has since turned her attention to writing.
Ultimately Bearer of Bad News is a quirky blend of mystery-thriller and poignant historical fiction, set against the backdrop of the complicated world of social media.
You can get your copy at the American Book Center.
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