"An intriguing, unsettling mystery told over a dual timeframe by one of the most endearing lead characters you’ll come across this year."
It’s 2018 and poor Edie is haunted by the disappearance of her best friend, Lucy. She vanished over sixty years ago and Edie knows that deep down she holds a secret that could help solve her puzzling disappearance. As an increasingly forgetful 84-year-old, there are many memories Edie struggles to keep hold of – but the mystery surrounding Lucy isn’t one she’s prepared to give up on easily. Utterly compelling, darkly unnerving and a joyful masterclass in storytelling, Emily Critchley’s debut adult novel hits the mark on so many levels. The wonderfully fragmented narrative echoes Edie’s growing state of confusion, and the menacing build-up of tension towards the novel’s dramatic climax is almost unbearable at times. But what shines most is the portrait of Edie herself; you can’t fault her loyalty, wisdom and kindness as a young girl, and you continue to admire her resilience and determination over sixty years later. She’s an absolute diamond – and one of the most sensitively drawn characters I’ve had the pleasure to meet on paper in a long time. Critchley’s portrayal of her as a young girl is painstakingly authentic, capturing the emotional ups and downs of teenage life to a tee. And as an adult in the throes of dementia, her character is just as multi-layered … and endearing. Memory loss is an emotive subject for any writer to tackle. It could be easy to create a story that drifts towards the negative, but by wrapping it up in such a gripping mystery, with heart-warming characters, One Puzzling Afternoon manages to keep the full range of emotions in play – you’ll cry, you’ll chuckle and there are times you won’t dare turn the page.
| Primary Genre | General Fiction |
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| Recommendations: |
On a suburban street filled with secrets, 84 year old Edie Green must look back into the past to discover what happened to her friend Lucy, who went missing years before . . .
A mystery she can't remember. A friend she can't forget.
I kept your secret Lucy. I've kept it for more than sixty years . . .
It is 1951, and at number six Sycamore Street fifteen-year-old Edie Green is lonely. Living alone with her eccentric mother - who conducts seances for the local Ludthorpe community - she is desperate for something to shake her from her dull, isolated life.
When the popular, pretty Lucy Theddle befriends Edie, she thinks all her troubles are over. But Lucy has a secret, one Edie is not certain she should keep . . .
Then Lucy goes missing.
2018. Edie is eighty-two and still living in Ludthorpe. When one day she glimpses Lucy Theddle, still looking the same as she did at fifteen, her family write it off as one of her many mix ups. There's a lot Edie gets confused about these days. A lot she finds difficult to remember. But what she does know is this: she must find out what happened to Lucy, all those years ago . . .
One Puzzling Afternoon features in the following genres: General Fiction, Debut Books of the Month, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations, Debuts, Feel-Good Fiction
One Puzzling Afternoon is available in Paperback, Hardback, Ebook
One Puzzling Afternoon was written by Emily Critchley and published by Bonnier Books Ltd
One Puzzling Afternoon has 400 pages
£13.49
