The Mulberry Tree
Book - 2002
Left nothing but a ramshackle farm house when her business titan husband dies, Lillian changes her identity to escape the press and wonders at the mysterious note left to her by her late husband that asks her to find out what happened.
Publisher:
New York : Atria Books, 2002.
Edition:
1st ed.
ISBN:
9780671014216
0671014218
0671014218
Branch Call Number:
Fic Deve
Characteristics:
377 p. ; 25cm.


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Add a CommentI enjoyed the story line but there was a lot of characters to keep in line. It might have not been a 10/10 but I could not put it down. So a must read to the end-great ending!
This book is okay, but not great. The biggest problem is that the author leaves a couple huge questions (surrounding the big mystery) unanswered. From the very beginning the author implies two characters must be blackmailing another. This is sort of confirmed, to a degree, near the end, but the author never reveals how or when these characters would have crossed paths, or how the blackmail started.
Another huge part of the plot is the inheritance. It ultimately doesn’t make any sense. You realize that blackmail had to be the reason he wrote his will the way he did. At the very beginning you learn that he left her the house without actually putting it in the will, so no one else would know. If he figured out a way to do that, why didn’t he leave her a reasonable amount of money to be given to her in the same manner? You know he does not value money because he has so much of it, and he thinks that his wife would be taken advantage of if he left her a large amount. But considering the condition of the house, the amount of money he left her wouldn’t even cover half the repairs to make it livable.
For someone who claimed to love her so much, and sincerely promised she’d be taken care of after his death, the inheritance doesn’t make sense, and is never explained.
The character development of the late husband is very interesting, and is revealed slowly throughout the book. By the end you are desperately wishing for a confrontation that can never happen because he is dead. You feel like you are left with so many questions that only he can answer, so you are left wanting.