It seems that most books I read lately, especially for book clubs, tells the story in two or more timelines at once. Sometimes it works, but often it feels like a crutch. It feels like the author didn’t bother coming up with interesting events or characters, so doles out information years apart to increase the tension.
When multiple characters have the same sort of thing happen to them, it feels forced. And it becomes easy to identify the formula that was used in the writing. At point X, things get worse and worse for the main character. All is lost until there is a reversal. I mean, if the story has multiple main characters maybe one of them should stay in despair, or avoid the tragedy in the first place. It would make for a more interesting novel, I believe.