An awesome insight into the main character - you become her and want to care for her. Beautifully written. A hungry tale that you want to explore and understand - half way through I'd pieced it together, however, it is written in such a way that I wanted to keep reading. A fabulous debut novel touching on mental health, love, lost, crime and coping

I read this novel some time ago now and it has stayed with me. A stunning and assured debut filled with suspense, beauty and sadness. A window into the mind of someone with dementia, not easily forgotten, and deserving of all the praise it has received. Emma Healey is a wonderful talent. If you love this book you might like the novel TURN OF MIND by Alice LaPlante - another suspenseful novel about a women with Alzheimer's, and underrated!

This is an amazingly subtle and sophisticated debut novel for such a young writer. From page one you are drawn into the life and muddled mind of the elderly Maud who has to contend with the frustrations attendant on a failing memory and nagging sense of loss. She is a feisty character who is not to be bullied by her carer. She is convinced that her best friend Elizabeth is missing, but has constantly to write notes to herself to remind her of the fact, which neither her devoted and long suffering daughter nor her carer seems able to explain satisfactorily. She sets off on a quest to solve the mystery and this eventful journey, (which has a variety of consequence, both poignant and hilarious), is confused in her mind with her sharper memories of a parallel 70 year old mystery involving the disappearance of her elder sister. Emma weaves these two story strands together lightly with an utterly convincing evocation of post WW2 England and an equally clear portrayal of well developed characters and plot. She deftly scatters a sprinkling of clues that at first seem to be the inconsequential ramblings and random actions of the confused old lady but which all make perfect sense when the last pieces of this well crafted jigsaw finally fall into place and both mysteries are satisfactorily resolved..

Beautifully written and quite frankly heartbreaking - the past and present overlap in the fractured mind of Maud, the bewilderment of dementia is terrifyingly described. A fabulous read that is well deserving of high praise.

At some points in this book I got really into it, but other times I found myself being uninterested and getting a bit lost in the words. Despite this, I found the story very interesting, and I love how it alternates between Maud's past and present. However, I didn't like how in the present Maud would often go on tangents, because she would forget what she was thinking, but it did add to her character. I found the recollections of Maud's childhood interesting, especially as it is set in the 1940s - it added a very nice touch to the story. The book takes a very unexpected turn in it's final chapters. The outcome of this book was surprising, yet everything is pieced together perfectly in the end. Overall, I think the storyline to this book was very exciting, but also frustrating, as you want to find out where Elizabeth is and what happened to Sukey. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mystery novels, especially ones set in the past.