The Testament of Harold's Wife

October 22, 2018
A widower takes up her late husband’s mission to get revenge on the man who killed their grandson in the gripping latest from Hugo (Graceland). Louisa and Harold run a small farm in rural Indiana, and their greatest joy is their five-year-old grandson, Cody. When Cody is hit and killed by a drunk driver, their lives are shattered. As Louisa struggles to care for her distraught son, Gary, Harold begins plotting to destroy the man responsible for the crash—but he kills himself before carrying out his plan. Now, one year after his death, Louisa has decided to do it for him. Though the plot is promising and Louisa is a charming protagonist, Hugo tells most of the story through flashbacks that often pull the reader out of the scene and leave the current lives of the characters feeling stagnant. In an underdeveloped subplot, Louisa must keep a romantically interested sheriff away, but the vengeance plot and the revelation of Louisa’s tragic past drive the book . Hugo’s novel of thwarted redemption is a strange mix of caper and thriller that, disappointingly, never allows readers access to the whole of Louisa’s experience.

September 1, 2018
Hugo's latest (after Remember My Beauties, 2016) is a sweet, sad, funny meditation on the nature of aging and grief. Louisa has lived with only her chickens and a former barn cat ever since she lost her grandson and her husband in a six-month span. Seventeen-year-old Cody was killed by a drunk driver, and Harold's mission became bringing Cody's killer to justice; when the man earned just a slap on the wrist, Harold felt he failed. Cody's father, Louisa's son, dealt with his pain by turning to Jesus and trying to get his mother on board with his new church, but Louisa has decided the mission of her life is to complete the Plan and succeed where Harold could not: she's going to bring the killer down herself. Throughout her pain and rage, Louisa never loses her humor or appreciation for the absurdities of her situation. This is a novel that would fit right in on the shelf next to novels like A Man Called Ove (2014) and similar books that balance humor and heartbreak.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)