Mr. Flood's Last Resort

Mr. Flood’s Last Resort by Jess Kidd

     I was excited to receive an advance copy of this book because I enjoyed Jess Kidd’s Himself so much. As in that book we are again encouraged to believe in the living dead,  ghosts living amongst us.  In this case it’s the saints themselves.

     Maud Drennan is a home caregiver to Cathal Flood.  She didn’t anticipate being asked to organize a hoarder, a real grouch of a one, at that.  Mr. Flood manages to live in just fine in the mess of his life and isn’t all too happy to have someone invading his space but he must accept help if he wants to stay in his home. One more indiscretion, he is told, and he will be sent away to a home.  He is hiding so many secrets and he resents the threat to the degree he has chased away previous caregivers.  His house is haunted, not malevolently, but still.  There are secret rooms and passages and a whole half of the house is  blocked off and barricaded by a wall of National Geographic magazines.  No one goes past them.  Even Mr. Flood. This is a problem for Maud because that half of the house contains the bathroom with its bathtub, something Mr. Flood hasn’t used in a long, long time. And you know what it’s like when you’re told you mustn’t go somewhere.  It makes that place all the more interesting and tempting. Maud is no exception.

      Maud has her own secrets, her own past to reconcile and so she is happy to do this work and not think too much.  She is always kept company by the saints who accompany her everywhere, talking to her, advising, guiding, criticizing and warning. Maud can’t go anywhere without them and that’s a good thing. Sometimes she needs them a lot.  They can, of course, see things she can’t.

Maud becomes intrigued with the disappearance of a young girl and is convinced the answers are within this family’s secrets.  While she becomes more and more determined to find out what really happened to the girl, she also becomes more and more tolerant and understanding of Mr. Flood, and he with her, there are others who do not want the past revisited and the power they hold is the power that could put Mr. Flood into a home.

      There is mystery and insight and tolerance and finally the most powerful, forgiveness in this story of a young woman and a misunderstood old man. And Jess Kidd has once again gotten it just right