AN AGREEMENT WE MADE

In this novel, a stay-at-home dad reels at revelations of secrets and lies when his wife dies abruptly.

A couple of decades ago, James Bell volunteered to be a stay-at-home dad while his wife, Tina, pursued her high-earning career in medical device sales. Living in a pricey Portland, Oregon, suburb, they now have three kids. Although he claims he doesn’t feel stuck, James is lonely and resents Tina’s devotion to work, her frequent business travel, and her increasing absence from family life. Tina’s sudden death from a heart attack yields shocking truths. In the last year and a half, she resigned from her job, withdrew every cent from the family’s financial assets, and stopped all payments. Now flat broke, his house and possessions foreclosed on, James must quickly reinvent his life. He reluctantly moves back to Shoreline, Oregon, where he grew up, turning his skills as a construction project manager toward his divorced parents’ rival B&Bs and renovating a dilapidated family house. Meanwhile, James uncovers not only Tina’s secrets and the unexpected reasons behind her actions, but many other hidden truths among his family and friends—one of which leads to a dangerous confrontation. In his fifth novel, Kolbet has an intriguing hook in narrator James since stay-at-home fathers are still rare despite some changing social attitudes. While James can sound whiny in the beginning, he’s resilient in adapting to all the shocks he receives and is willing to ask himself hard questions about why people hid themselves from him. His perspective is balanced by transcripts from Tina’s online life-coaching sessions that reveal her pains, vulnerabilities, and plans. While generally well plotted, the novel’s turn toward a thriller-style ending seems inauthentic.

An involving story of hidden undercurrents and personal growth.