Maude lives alone. Her carers come by and tell her not to buy anymore food, because she has too many tins of peaches already. She goes to the shops and forgets why she is there and then she buys tinned peaches. She has a daughter and her daughter sighs at her a lot and tells her not to eat so much toast. But Maude knows that Elizabeth is missing, because she has notes all over that tell her so. She writes the notes to remember […]
When a book is (way) more than just a book.
This review requires a lot of backstory that isn’t directly related to the actual quality of the book, so bear with me. Some facts pertinent to what I’m leading up to: My husband and I are Catholic adult converts. Our daughter took years and fertility treatments to conceive, and trying for kid #2 has not proven one bit easier. When I finally did get pregnant, I had a difficult pregnancy and good reason to think she might not make it. For the first time I […]
Guilt, Pleasure, and Murder
This mystery is part of the Inspector Lynley series, featuring the inspector and his sergeant Barbara Havers. I haven’t read the others in the series, and I’m happy to report that it doesn’t seem to matter. Elizabeth George’s work was recommended by a friend and it was a good recommendation. The tale moved along at a quick pace and featured morally complex characters, which all added up to more than just a clever whodunnit. What I liked most about this story was the inclusion of […]
A superbly evocative and suspenseful debut that looks at old age, loneliness and dementia.
The Night Guest is hard to categorise – it’s both a taut thriller and an altogether close-to-home examination of dementia and loneliness, written with a wonderful sense of pacing and language. Although the main plot deals with an elderly lady accepting a stranger into her home and life, the most resonant parts for me come from a beautifully muddled blending of memories and reality. Like last year’s Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller, The Night Guest offers a compelling glimpse into the slow grip […]