The Better Brother by Simon Gravatt is today’s first book tour post for Random Things Tours. Thanks to Anne Cater and Red Door Press for the copy of the book to bring you my thoughts today.
Michael Merriweather’s carefully planned life is blown off course when he receives a call to tell him that his father has cremated himself. Michael then learns from a small-town lawyer that he stands to inherit a small fortune he previously knew nothing about, but only if he sacrifices his accountancy career to take over the family funeral business with his brother, Jack, whom he despises.
Sucked back into the small provincial world and the family funeral firm he has rejected, Michael can no longer avoid his loathsome sibling. Jack Merriweather has no idea what he’s done to deserve his brother’s hostility, but he’s about to suffer the consequences. Then, when his patience finally breaks, he will exact delicious revenge.
The Better Brother is a darkly comic tale of sibling rivalry laced with the power, passion, revenge and everyday friction of family business. It explores what happens when two warring brothers are forced to work together. Will Michael and Jack learn to love and respect each other? Or will their acrimony escalate? If so, who will come out on top? Who is the better brother?
The Better Brother is a darkly funny novel about siblings. We are introduced to Michael and Jack Merriweather, brothers who are forced back together by their fathers death and subsequent wishes. Michael isn’t happy at all having had to stop working as a high powered lawyer with the large salary it attracts. Jack really doesn’t know why his brother doesn’t like him. He just knows they will have to work together to sort the funeral business they have to make successful.
It’s a pretty unique subject male sibling rivalry. Sisters are much more frequently used in books, the bitchiness etc makes for an easier write. Men are a real enigma and Simon Gravatt has got under the surface of the brothers and created a mutli-layered tale of sibling rivalry that is like an onion,as the layers peel away to get to the core of all the tensions. The bitterness and the determination to be the best.
The dark humour that bordered on morbid was the hook that got me in this story. I was so interested in how it would go, that no matter what, I was reading. I did think that Simon Gravatt did an excellent job with both Michael and Jack. They weren’t just two brothers who couldn’t get on.
They were interesting characters who had their own lives. I know who I preferred out of the two. I was rooting for Jack. I found Michael more of a one-up man, cold and selfish, and Jack just couldn’t fathom what he had done wrong.
I had finished this before I knew it as it flowed so well. Such a well written story with characters that were so interesting and entertaining.
Author Bio
Simon Gravatt is a first-time novelist who lives in South London. He’s drawn from personal experience as a brother and business owner to write his tale of sibling rivalry and the combustibility of small business. Simon’s married with two adult children.
sharonbeyondthebooks.uk 
Thank you x
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