Quarter Past Two on a Wednesday Afternoon – Linda Newbery

Contemporary Fiction
4*’s

I have to admit I was drawn to this book by the beautiful cover and the intriguing title and these window dressings weren’t false advertising; this well-written novel is told in a narrative that goes backwards and forwards over time slowly revealing an astonishing array of secrets and lies that span decades.

Thirteen year old Anna left her sister, Rose, who she was in awe of to go out because she was bored. It was a Wednesday afternoon in the summer holiday and when she returned eighteen year old Rose had gone, left without a trace leaving Anna with the image of how she had left her reading under a pear tree. The weaving narrative uncovers the truths, half-truths and outright lies that underpin this family, remarkable for their normality, as they struggle to cope with her disappearance. Not knowing what happened to Rose has changed them all and twenty years on, Anna who is trying to live up to her idolisation of Rose decides to track some of her friends in an attempt to find out what happened.

The narrative starts with Anna but it also picks up her mother, Sandra’s story, from the sixties giving this book an unexpected twist with parallels between the two tales that twist around each other revealing another piece of information which adds more detail to the picture being painted. For me the details, were incredibly visual, the writing easy to lose yourself in as the revelations tumbled out the reader understands more about the complexities of the family bonds but gently done so that I didn’t feel that the sheer quantity of issues seemed unrealistic.

This was an absorbing read, which delivers far more than the blurb may suggest with some powerful insights into the bonds that both hold families together and those that can cast members adrift. The wide range of time periods covered were exceptionally well handled with the changes in society clear without the author feeling the need to ‘over-explain’ the details. This is the kind of read I enjoy, one where the author has confidence in the reader to exercise their own reasoning to understand the actions of their characters. The visual characteristic of the book was underpinned by the artistic endeavours of both Rose and Anna, with the heart-breaking description of Anna’s A Level composition of missing people almost undoing me as a symbol of her yearning for her sister’s return.

I’d like to say a big thank you to the publishers Doubleday for allowing me to read this book in return for my honest review A Quarter Past Two on a Wednesday Afternoon was published on 14 August 2014 in the UK although it is available on kindle in the US too.

WWW Wednesday (September 24)

Hosted by Miz B at Should be Reading

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading Quarter Past Two on a Wednesday Afternoon by Linda Newbery which is proving to be an absorbing read.

Blurb

It was the day when everything stopped.
At quarter past two on a hot afternoon in August, Anna’s beautiful, headstrong elder sister Rose disappears.
Twenty years later, Anna still doesn’t know whether Rose is alive or dead. In her early thirties now, she sees her future unfolding – with sensible, serious Martin and a grown-up, steady job – and finds herself wondering if this is what she really wants.
Unable to take control of her life while the mystery of her sister’s disappearance remains unsolved, Anna begins to search for the truth: what did happen to Rose that summer’s day? Amazon

I recently finished Murder on the Orient Express by the wonderful Agatha Christie
Click on the cover to read my review

Next I am going to read This Little Piggy by Bea Davenport

Blurb

It’€™s the summer of 1984 and there is a sense of unease on the troubled Sweetmeadows estate. The residents are in shock after the suspicious death of a baby and tension is growing due to the ongoing miners’€™ strike. Journalist Clare Jackson follows the story as police bungle the inquiry and struggle to contain the escalating violence. Haunted by a personal trauma she can’t face up to, Clare is shadowed by nine-year-old Amy, a bright but neglected little girl who seems to know more about the incident than she’€™s letting on. As the days go on and the killer is not found, Clare ignores warnings not to get too close to her stories and, in doing so, puts her own life in jeopardy. NetGalley

What are you reading this week?

Teaser Tuesday (September 23)

 

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

My teaser this week is from Quarter Past Two on a Wednesday Afternoon by Linda Newbery

Blurb

It was the day when everything stopped…
At quarter past two on a hot afternoon in August, Anna’s beautiful, headstrong elder sister Rose disappears.
Twenty years later, Anna still doesn’t know whether Rose is alive or dead. In her early thirties now, she sees her future unfolding – with sensible, serious Martin and a grown-up, steady job – and finds herself wondering if this is what she really wants.
Unable to take control of her life while the mystery of her sister’s disappearance remains unsolved, Anna begins to search for the truth: what did happen to Rose that summer’s day? NetGalley

My Teaser

In bed Anna propped herself up, reading Forever, her library book, anticipating drama and the earful Rose would get when she turned up. Eventually she turned off her light. It was a way of hastening Rose’s return; when she woke up it would be morning, Rose would be asleep in her room, an no-one would remember why they’d been so worried.

Interested?

Please leave the link to your teaser in the comments below

Friday Finds (August 1)

Hosted by Should be Reading

FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

So, come on — share with us your FRIDAY FINDS!

Well here we are August already and my TBR is still growing exponentially to the rate that I read.

I’ll start, as always, with the approvals I’ve gained from NetGalley and first up is a book I chose following a brilliantly tempting review on FictionFan’s Book Reviews: Traitor’s Storm by MJ Trow, the sixth book it the Kit Marlowe series.  Her comments about the humour in this book caught my attention:

‘There’s lots of humour in the book and although the body count is pretty high there’s nothing gruesome about it – the violence all takes place off-stage’

Blurb

Christopher Marlowe faces the might of the Spanish Armada in the sixth of this intriguing historical mystery series
May, 1588. With Elizabeth I’s court rocked by stories of an imminent invasion and one of his key undercover agents missing, Sir Francis Walsingham despatches Kit Marlowe to the Isle of Wight off the south coast: the first line of defence against the approaching Spanish Armada.
Lodging at Carisbrooke Castle with the Isle of Wight’s Governor, Sir George Carey, Marlowe finds the Islanders a strange and suspicious lot, with their own peculiar customs and dialect. But is there reason to doubt their loyalty to the Crown? And is the Island really haunted, as some believe? Of one thing Marlowe is certain: it’s no ghost behind the series of violent and inexplicable deaths which plague the region. But will he have time to uncover the truth and expose the killer before the might of the Armada descends? Amazon

Next up I have a copy of Quarter Past Two on a Wednesday Afternoon by Linda Newbery which I decided was a book for me after reading an enticing review on Mad about the Books. I am a huge lover of looking back into the social history of recent times so the following quote struck a chord:

‘Sandra’s tale serves to remind us that the 1960s were not a swinging time for everyone and that plenty of ‘Victorian values’ still held sway.’

Blurb

It was the day when everything stopped…
At quarter past two on a hot afternoon in August, Anna’s beautiful, headstrong elder sister Rose disappears.
Twenty years later, Anna still doesn’t know whether Rose is alive or dead. In her early thirties now, she sees her future unfolding – with sensible, serious Martin and a grown-up, steady job – and finds herself wondering if this is what she really wants.
Unable to take control of her life while the mystery of her sister’s disappearance remains unsolved, Anna begins to search for the truth: what did happen to Rose that summer’s day? NetGalley

I bought a copy of Shame by Karin Alvtegen after coming across a review on Ms. Wordopolis Reads which caught my attention, especially the following sentence:

‘she goes deep into the minds of these damaged women and conveys the depths and changes in their feelings very closely’.

Blurb

Two women trapped by a past that won’t let go . . . At first sight, Monika and Maj-Britt are as different as two people can possibly be. They have nothing in common but the determination to obliterate their memories and be left alone. But when a tragic accident brings them face to face, the emotional voids at the centre of their lives threatens to engulf them and they are forced to confront the secrets and the sadness they had hoped to bury. A suspenseful psychological thriller, Shame reveals the ordinary days of the odd and the lonely as they twist into self-destruction and holds out a glimmering hope of redemption and acceptance. Amazon

I was delighted to receive a copy of The Girl On The Train by debut author Paula Hawkins which is due to be released in January 2015 from the publishers Hatchette, this sounds like just my kind of read!

Blurb

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and every night. Every day she rattles over the same track junctions, flashes past the same stretch of cozy suburban homes. And every day she stops at the same signal and she sees the same couple, breakfasting on their roof deck, living the perfect life that Rachel craves for herself—a lifestyle she recently lost. She looks forward to observing this household every morning, even makes up names and narratives for its residents. Then one day Rachel sees someone new in their garden, and soon after, the woman who lived there disappears.
Unable to keep this information to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and in the process is drawn into the lives of the couple she thought of as Jason and Jess but whose names—she has learned from the news—are really Megan and Scott Hipwell.
But the police accuse Rachel of being unreliable, and it’s true that her memories can’t always be trusted. Plus there are the stories that her ex-husband’s new wife has been spreading about her. By the time Megan’s body is found, Rachel is in over her head, intricately entangled in the details of the investigation, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she put others in danger? Has she done more harm than good? Goodreads

Please share your finds with me.