📖 Overview
After his wife Lucy dies in a plane crash, Anthony seeks answers about her mysterious first marriage. Her previous life with Darryl Bob Allen and their two children had remained largely hidden during their relationship.
The story takes place in Nevada as Anthony tracks down Lucy's ex-husband, determined to understand the woman he thought he knew. His search for truth becomes an escalating obsession that leads him down unexpected paths.
What begins as a quest for information transforms into a psychological journey through grief, identity, and the limits of knowing another person. The novel explores how love and loss can alter perception and push someone beyond rational boundaries.
👀 Reviews
Many readers found Thanksgiving to be one of Dibdin's weaker works. The book received a 3.32/5 average rating on Goodreads from 192 ratings.
What readers liked:
- The atmospheric descriptions of Seattle
- The psychological tension
- The unreliable narrator technique
- The short length and fast pacing
What readers disliked:
- The overly complex plot that some called "convoluted"
- Characters that lacked depth
- An unsatisfying ending that felt rushed
- The departure from Dibdin's Aurelio Zen series
From reviews:
"The plot twists became absurd by the end" - Goodreads reviewer
"Seattle's gloomy atmosphere is the real star" - Amazon review
"Too many loose ends left dangling" - Library Thing user
Ratings:
Amazon: 3.1/5 (43 reviews)
Goodreads: 3.32/5 (192 ratings)
Library Thing: 3.0/5 (26 ratings)
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Dead I Well May Be by Adrian McKinty An Irish hitman in New York City becomes entangled in revenge and betrayal across international borders.
Berlin Game by Len Deighton A British intelligence officer confronts treachery within his own department while handling a critical East German asset.
A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson Two parallel narratives link a modern Portuguese murder to Nazi gold smuggling operations from World War II.
The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell A Swedish detective's investigation of murdered Latvian criminals leads to post-Soviet political conspiracies.
🤔 Interesting facts
🔍 Michael Dibdin wrote over 20 crime novels, with his most famous being the Aurelio Zen series set in Italy
📚 The Nevada setting in "Thanksgiving" represents a stark departure from Dibdin's usual European-based narratives
✈️ The use of a plane crash as a plot device reflects a period in the 1990s when aviation disasters frequently appeared in thriller literature
💕 Dibdin drew from personal experience with loss, having experienced the death of his first wife, which likely influenced the emotional depth of the narrative
🎓 Before becoming a novelist, Dibdin taught English at the University of Perugia in Italy, which significantly influenced his writing style and attention to cultural details