“When they built the retirement property on Maui then, and he told her abruptly and without warning that he wanted to sell their other houses, the prospect frightened her. …They had, after all, already downsized from the big house in Bel Air to the penthouse in Beverly Hills…The little beach house in Malibu was well managed as a rental property and cost them virtually nothing to own. The apartment in New York was a financial asset whether they ever stayed there again or not. And as for their winter house, the house in Aspen that he always claimed to dislike so much? Well, that house, she said, that house had become too valuable to sell.”
Those are some lines from the first chapter of Patricia Finn’s novel The Golden Boy. The owner of all these houses is Stafford Hopkins, a wealthy retired television producer. The author weaves a story about Stafford and his wife Agnes, their childhoods and the tragedies they endured as children and adults.
Stafford grew up on a farm in Canada with a brother, Emmett, who was always getting in trouble. His best friend, Bobby Shepherd, lived on the next farm over and died tragically when they were teenagers. Soon after moving to Maui, adult Stafford receives a telegram stating that he has been named guardian to Bobby’s four grandchildren. Stafford flies to Canada to deal with the problem in person and once and for all.
This story is about the value of true friendships but also, as the jacket says, “love, mercy, and second chances.” The author has roots in Canada and has worked for television networks, both of which enrich this story.
If you enjoy a well written story about human relationships, then you must read The Golden Boy by Patricia Finn.
