“With all of the letters, languages, words, combinations and structures that exist, I should be able to come up with something original. It must be an endless pot of wonder. You can do so much with just words. They have power.” P185

Will Carver goes where other authors fear to tread. This latest read is no exception. Any author who dares to give a book the title ‘Suicide Thursday’, a trigger warning in and of itself, is staking a claim that no topic is off limits. Carver has proved that before but Suicide Thursday takes it to the next level.

Suicide Thursday is actually about suicide. Mike’s suicide. Best friend of Eli Hagin. Eli who can’t seem to finish anything. Unlike Mike. Author of a million first chapters. Carver wraps suicide in a package unlike anyone else could, unafraid to create a commentary inside a novel that socks it to the reader, right between the eyes.

I always find it difficult to separate the what I take from Carver’s underpinning social comment and the actual narrative that weaves it together. Both are equally important and give meaning to each other. Suicide is such a taboo topic still imo in 2024. The why’s and wherefore’s are the stuff of quiet conversations, and the myriad of suppressed emotions, unshared thoughts and unspoken words of those affected or unaffected take centre stage in Suicide Thursday.

The power of words is a recurrent theme that Carver uses. The fact that once words are out in the ether, it is impossible to draw them back. The written word is particularly static no matter if the delete button has been pressed or the ‘recall’ function has been used. Sometimes I reflect that words are all we have, language is supreme, not to use any cliches but what do I do with my words. There are millions of words written everyday .. it’s like we’ve all got so many words to produce every single day. What do they do?

Mike killed himself. Suicide Thursday doesn’t necessarily go into the why’s but it does present a challenge regarding things that may have contributed to the actuality. I can’t sum this book up which probably reflects all the Carver books I have read. I wasn’t going to give it 5 stars but when I consider the effect it has on me I can’t do anything but.

Seriously dark yet thought provoking. Some parts of this are really hard to read as the overarching theme is, indeed, suicide as the title blatantly tells you but this doesn’t lessen the shock effect.
The way the book counts down to key events is intensely clever and feels very real and relatable as are the comments on life in general, especially he toxicity of working in an office and the repeating and familiar characters is spot on.
I found some parts really difficult to read but feel better overall for having done so, like exorcising personal demons, the book is really quite intense but hugely honest and examines the human psyche in a brutally honest way.
I loved the theme of Eli, one of the main characters never being able to finish anything and the intensely clever premise that he had a catalogue of first chapters of books he had started as an author. A real testament to human nature and our procrastination and the truth that some decisions, even the really obvious ones still aren’t easy to make and carry out. I loved the relationship that Jackie has and the vindication that actually she did love both of the men she was having relationships with at the same time, like isn’t always so black and white (no, this isn’t a personal confession!) Superbly written and rich food for thought, I know this one will etch itself into my subconscious for a long time yet to come. Thank you.

And so with shoulders firmly back and pants hitched up, it’s time to brace ourselves for another journey into the marvellous, acerbic and delightfully twisted world of Will Carver. As Forrest Gump once said, “Will Carver is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” But they changed it in the film. Shame.

So with no further ado, welcome to Suicide Thursday, a tale of infidelity, death, thwarted ambition, and all points in between, which felt different in tone and structure to Carver’s usual railing against the world, but definitely no less satisfying for that.

Feeling more linear in structure than usual, despite the oscillating timeline, Carver has constructed a story which focuses much more on one man’s machinations on life, love and the sheer mindless boredom of the 9-5, “my soul has been systematically ripped from me piece by piece on a daily basis,” Eli Hagin has a hankering to devote his time to writing, if he can get past the endless first chapters he produces,

“Okay, in a way I’m a writer but not really. I write first chapters that can’t possibly lead anywhere because the stories are full of Dutch midgets and suicide and homeless people and lobotomised transexuals and superstition and mirage…pathetic ten-page novelty tales to hide the fact that I actually have nothing poignant to say, “

and also harbouring an urge to ditch his girlfriend, if he can find the right time and level of pre- total inebriation. He talks to an imaginary therapist and is still coming to terms with the death of his mother. Yes, Eli’s world is a dark and dissatisfying place, and then his best friend commits suicide, but in Eli’s confused world of fact and fiction, is he entirely blameless and can this all really be a catalyst for the change he seeks?

I was very much torn in my opinion of Eli, who gravitates between states of infuriating inertia to manic self-questioning, and seemingly pie in the sky plans of action. He’s not a particularly likeable individual, which I can say is true of the majority of the characters in the book, but nevertheless we are cajoled and corralled into liking him a little bit better as the book goes on. He has some moments of pure genius with no major spoilers, making the kind of speech you would really like to hear at a funeral, and dispensing a degree of revenge in his workplace amongst other things, and as they say, still waters run deep in this character. Just how deep gradually unfolds as we begin to navigate the fictional worlds that Eli creates, and his deteriorating relationships with pretty much everyone.

His girlfriend Jackie arouses in the reader a feeling of exasperation, as she hitches her truck to two unsuitable men, oh, and God too, and has a cat, Descartes, who exhibits an equal disdain for her as his human counterparts. I felt throughout that she needed some kind of wake up call, and thinking maybe she should have teamed up with another female character, who makes a beautiful little cameo in this book, as part of the growing Carver Cabinet of Characterful Curiosities. As her and Eli’s existence as individuals and as a couple vacillates between grumbling dissatisfaction and a sense of resigned acceptance, there are many more secrets and lies that are revealed throughout the course of the book thrown up by the suicide of their best friend Mike…

Obviously, no Carver book would be complete without the occasional venomous observation of the futility of life, religion, and the folly and the bitter taste of betrayal in human relationships as friends or lovers. I like the little allusions to his previous books peppered throughout this one, and the way that he produces a self-mocking element into the book with Eli’s floundering attempts at literary greatness, and the questionable prowess of writers to produce something truly meaningful and relevant. With all this in mind, Suicide Thursday proves itself to be a much more measured and meditative book than some of his previous books where he allows a much stronger vibe of storytelling and character building with a less, admittedly always enjoyable, maniacal edge to this one. Yes, there’s still the crazy, but a little bit dialled down crazy, to allow room for this one to take the reader in another direction, and to enhance further Carver’s growing reputation as one of the more flexible, inventive, imaginative and boundary pushing writers within crime fiction today. How can this one be not highly recommended as usual?

Simple.

It can’t.

Highly recommended.

Suicide Thursday by Will Carver is a little bleak, dark twisty thriller with unreliable characters which made it an unique read for me.

I would like to thank the TBC Reviewers Request Group & the author for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review