Irreconcilable Differences

by Geoff Cook

IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES

The surprise news of Caroline and Dominic’s impending divorce has provoked a variety of contrasting reactions from family members. Expressions of amazement and regret could have been expected, but there are those who take a more sceptical and sanguine view.
Caroline’s father, Len, a retired police inspector, swears he saw it coming. After all, his daughter was always too good for the man she married. He has told her so on numerous occasions. She just needed to look at Charlie, her father-in-law, to see that Dominic was the unfortunate, flawed offspring of dysfunctional parents.
For former used-car trader, Charlie, the prospect of that devious snob, Len, contriving to restrict his access to the grandchildren is just too much to stomach. The arrogant copper has always gone out of his way to demonstrate his superiority and belittle Charlie's Cockney background and life choices. Time for a reckoning.
Over the years, the pent-up hatred of the two men for each other has been contained under a veneer of civility. As the truth behind the break-up of the marriage surfaces, their paranoia takes a sinister turn.
Ignoring the pleas of their long-suffering wives, both men seek to gain the upper hand by involving family and friends in a clandestine attempt to dig up dirt on each other. But raking over the past takes an unexpected twist as their quest to find skeletons in the cupboards uncovers treacherous liaisons, awakes dormant emotions and rekindles old animosities.
Chaos comes thick and fast when paper tigers gain their stripes and innocent people start dying . . .


Irreconcilable Differences offers a mildly humorous take on feuding families, the evolution of relationships in stressful times and the vagary of human emotions in moments of crisis.

427 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 20, 2022

About the author

Born and educated in London, I trained as an accountant and spent a large part of my working life outside the UK. mainly in Brazil, Spain and Portugal. A vivid imagination, coupled with experience in a wide variety of industrial and commercial ventures in contrasting environments has proved a rich vein in stimulating my lifelong passion to write.
At the turn of the millennium, I made the time to start writing seriously, producing my first novel, Pieces for the Wicked and two three-act plays, Painful Truths and The Last Chapter, as my introduction to the literary world.
Although I do not feel committed to any specific fiction genre, I consider my subsequent novels through 2010 to date broadly fit into the suspense and thriller category.
Inspired by a Latin palindrome, The Sator Square deals with a terrorist plot to kill a member of the Royal family and was published by NGP in both hardback and paperback. It was followed by Deaf Wish, a tale of adultery, deceit, betrayal and murder set, unsurprisingly, in Wales, Portugal and Spain's Costa de la Luz.
My most taxing work to date is The Last Rights, the story of a Holocaust survivor who witnesses the greatest robbery of all time. Moulding the plot around the historical detail of Germany in 1945 and the Nazi escape route to South America required extensive research and I sincerely thank the historians who made my task and the novel possible.
It was perhaps a reflex that the release which followed, Irreconcilable Differences, is a black comedy, dealing with deadly inter-family rivalries.
As I write this bio, my latest novel, Octogen, is about to be released. A dystopian plot, set in 2065, a family in crisis is faced with the terrifying consequences of a project - codename Octogen.
Working in Eastbourne, I travel frequently to the Algarve where I live with my wife, Fatima. Between us, we have four sons and six grandchildren.

For a more detailed look, go to www.geoff-cook.com