Book Review: The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
by Hannah Tinti (Tinti)

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is a mystery, of sorts. It’s not a traditional whodunit. Samuel Hawley is a mystery himself. He is riddled with bullet scars. He’s always on the run with his daughter Loo. He is obsessed with having a gun at all times. Sure, he seems to have lived a rough life on the wrong side of the law. And the scars are a clue. However, as the story unfolds we are left with an even bigger question: why did Loo’s mother die?

 

The story is told alternating between Loo and Samuel. Each of Samuel’s chapters detail how he earned his 12 bullet wounds and how it changed him. Loo’s chapters give us a picture of a young girl growing up without roots, the difficulties of never fitting in, and how she becomes a young woman.

 

The book is filled with suspense and lots of close calls for both Samuel and Loo. While Samuel might try to keep his dangerous past from his daughter, his dangerous past will surely come back to haunt them both. But fortunately good fathers don’t always have to be law-abiding men.

 

I found Tinti to be a skilled author; the book kept my attention and it was difficult to put down. I enjoyed the chapters from Samuel from “Bullet Number One” all the way to “Bullet Number Twelve.” I knew each chapter was going to have a dramatic story with a close call in which Samuel escapes with his life. If I had one complaint it would be that I wished the ending was less ambiguous.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz, The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave or The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti.)

 

( official The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley page on the official Hannah Tinti web site )

 

Recommended by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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