The Farm

Tom Rob Smith has written another excellent thriller that took me on a very satisfying joy ride full of unexpected twists and turns. Daniel, living in London, receives an unexpected visit from his estranged mother and is drawn into a possibly deranged story of a conspiracy that has turned his father against his mother. Has his parents retirement to a farm in rural Sweden driven his mother over the edge? Are the citizens of the nearby town concealing some dark secret that involves the disappearance of a teenaged girl? And how did the imposing and powerful father of the missing girl turn Daniel's father against his mother? Daniel has to figure out what is true to save his Mother from the demons of her past and present by traveling to The Farm in Sweden. Tom Rob Smith has a smooth and descriptive writing style than draws you in and pulls you along. I have read his Child 44 series and thoroughly enjoyed this one as well. Although this was long on exposition and not nearly as much action as his last three novels, the story was riveting and quite unpredictable in its conclusion. Smith is a master of his genre.

Having read TRSmith's Child 44 trilogy, I wasn't sure what to expect from The Farm. Well, it is completely different and not what I anticipated. It was better, more believable, and a page-turer for me. Lucid noir set in Sweden, it could well be a movie as another reviewer hinted. I do not quite understand the reviews that rip this novel which were likely based on personal taste. It has minor flaws, but the author does not oversell the plot and leaves it to the reader to imagine some explanations for character behavior. The twists are unexpected, the writing is compact, and the end not what one would surmise. After a couple days thinking about the novel, my satisfaction increased. I do not enjoy reviews that regurgitate the plot, so make of my views what you will. I enjoy thrillers, mysteries, and intrigue in novels. The Farm is not quite like any novel I have read, and perhaps that is why I enjoyed it so.

Well written and a quick read (because of the formatting, it's effectively a 300 page book), The Farm is ultimately a disappointing thriller. Though the tale is engaging and the characters well drawn, the conclusion was a bit of a let down, as if the author was under deadline and dashed off a quick ending. Ultimately a poor cousin to Larson's Dragon Tattoo series. Also, never go to Sweden.

Just finished the Farm. Well written, though when you step back from the sections of the Mother's tale, you realize that people don't talk this way--"his gleaming silver Saab,"-- for instance. I might say someone's car is a Ford, or a Cadillac, but probably not preface it by saying "gleaming silver" or "radiant red." The Mother's tale is a literary construct, sometimes frustratingly detailed, but gripping nevertheless. The delightful thing about this construct is that it pulls the reader in, because with every sentence, I found myself weighing the credibility of her story, judging her, even as she demanded not be judged. Its a level of reader participation not found in most stories. The book is well plotted; it keeps you guessing, and even when you have decided, there are still more revelations to come. The ending is satisfying, and makes sense, even though it was not readily apparent. I always feel cheated when an author gives too much away and I figure out the ending before getting there, although I do wish he would have written about ten more pages. . . .

Eschewing the Cold War setting of the Child 44 series, Tom Rob Smith's novel The Farm finds its tension on a far smaller scale: in a conversation between a grown man named Daniel and his mother. By the time that conversation begins, we've heard Daniel's father's warnings - that his mother is mentally ill and paranoid, that she could be a danger to him or to other people. But when part of her narrative is that such accusations are to discredit her, it all comes down to who you choose to believe. Much of The Farm is dedicated to this long conversation, in which the mother spins the tale of a small rural community hostile to outsiders, the strange incidents she witnesses, and the horrifying conspiracy she begins to discover as she digs into things. What makes The Farm so gripping, though, is that the tale is so ambiguous; much of it can be taken as either dark foreshadowing or the paranoia of a damaged mind. And indeed, it's Smith's commitment to that ambiguity that makes The Farm so compelling, as we're constantly forced to question the mother's tale and Daniel's reactions to that tale. Ultimately, we know this has to come down to Daniel's choice: is this all true, or is it indications of insanity? And yet, even then, Smith doesn't let us off that easily, tying everything together in a way that both makes total sense and yet feels genuinely surprising. The Farm is a great psychological thriller, one that uses the idea of an unreliable narrator and makes it the central question of the book, all while still spinning a gripping tale that forces us to question the things we're seeing and how we interpret them.

What starts out as a fairly interesting and intriguing tale of a mother's appeal to her son, attempting to defend her own sanity, quickly devolves into a drawn out re-telling of incident upon incident upon incident, with endless details, little of which the discerning reader will believe. Tilde's paranoia, whether intentional or not on the author's part, is blatant, and the credibility of the her tale diminishes as each chapter of monologue pleads with her son to believe her. The saddest part is that neither the mother Tilde nor her semi-closeted gay son are even remotely sympathetic characters in my opinion. And why this element of the son's sexuality was even introduced to the story line baffles me; he is only incidentally gay and, besides the fact that his supremely tolerant boyfriend foots most of the expenses incurred in his various quests, there is nothing that even connotes a need for this aspect of his character. The ending seems rushes when compared to the interminably drawn out bulk of the initial story, and the story abruptly closes leaving me with an apethetic, "So what?" Disappointing overall.

The Farm starts with a call to the protagonist (who lives in London) from his father: his mother is sick, in the hospital. She seems deranged, violent The protagonist is surprised because his parents, now in retirement in a farm in Sweden, have always been mild, nice people with few problems or secrets. He, on the other hand, although also pleasant and nice, has been hiding his homosexuality from his parents, afraid to disappoint them. The next call, however, is from his mother: she has left the hospital and is taking the next plane to London. She claims that she was put in the hospital against her will. This set up, hooks the reader from the beginning, as we want to know what happens next. The book is well written, in first person from the POV of the protagonist. It questions how well we know those we think we know, for example our parents...

When Daniel’s father calls from Sweden to tell him his mother has been committed to a psychiatric hospital, Daniel tells his father, “I’ll book a flight for the morning.” But by morning, his father has already called back. “Daniel, she’s not here!” Daniel’s mother has checked herself out of the hospital and it isn’t long before she calls Daniel and tells him, “I’m sure your father has spoken to you. Everything that man has told you is a lie. I’m not mad. I don’t need a doctor. I need the police. I’m about to board a flight to London. Meet me at Heathrow…” Tom Rob Smith begins The Farm with a great story premise. It’s filled with mystery and suspense and puts Daniel in an intriguing dilemma - who is telling the truth? Tilde arrives in London carrying a beat-up satchel, stuffed with chronological evidence implicating her husband, Chris, and others in a violent crime. What follows is a marathon tale of what was supposed to have been a happy retirement on a farm in Tilde’s native Sweden. It’s a race against time because Chris is on his way and will almost certainly commit her to a hospital in London. The momentum builds, as Smith introduces many mysterious characters with questionable motives. He blurs the lines by adding images of giant elk, fairy tale trolls, Swedish customs and harsh winters. Tilde’s rambling account of events on the farm at times seems plausible, but at other times her story seems far-fetched, her observations more and more paranoid. I enjoyed reading The Farm because of this interesting storyline, however, its momentum met an abrupt and unsatisfying open-ended finish, with limited explanation. It’s a curious mix of a modern story frame, filled with folk tales, local lore and characters with nearly superhuman physical fitness. Tilde swims out into a chilly river, rows boats, hauls wheelbarrows, paints barns, runs, and rides her bike everywhere, often in the middle of the night. Overall, however, I found The Farm entertaining, despite its ending and can picture this as a movie. It will be interesting to see what kind of story Smith publishes next.