After the sudden loss of his wife, Michael Turner moves to London and quickly develops a close friendship with the Nelson family next door. Josh, Samantha and their two young daughters seem to represent everything Michael fears he may now never have: intimacy, children, stability and a family home. Despite this, the new friendship at first seems to offer the prospect of healing, but then a catastrophic event changes everything. Michael is left bearing a burden of grief and a secret he must keep, but the truth can only be kept at bay for so long.

Earmarked for taking on my jollies, & if it does go with me, it won't be coming back! It will be released somewhere in Florida, so if you're reading this PLEASE let me know where you found it or how it got to you - it would be much appreciated :o)

Will up-date with review & actual release details on my return

Review Yesterday upon the stair,
I saw a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
I wish, I wish he'd go away."

From the blurb, I was expecting this to be a fairly standard mystery - the opening passage seeing Michael entering his neighbours apparently abandoned home doesn't give much away. What might have happened to Josh, Sam & their girls at this point is anyone's guess (we don't find out until a good halfway through the book) but the narrative is so compelling that you're well & truly hooked. "The big reveal in the London house promised by the opening lines is a genuinely gripping piece of story telling" says the F.T. Yes, gripping stuff indeed & "the reveal" is the point in story where things took a turn I'd never envisaged.

I've started this review a few times, there's so much I could, indeed want to say, but I kept finding myself repeating the storyline & that's not something I want to do. There's parts of the book that shocked me, surprised me & genuinely gave me pause for thought but I don't want to give away anything that will ruin it for future readers. So in short, it's a beautifully written story of love, loss & grief; of guilt, deceit & how a lie can soon spiral out of control; & of how people do..or don't..cope with the death of a loved one. Some of the sentences were very simple but the feeling of heartbreak was palpable.

I can say (without fear of spoilers) that Michael has been widowed so the story of his meeting Caroline & their marriage made for bitter-sweet reading. I found it quite romantic, these two independant people neither of whom is looking for or even ever expecting to find love, meet unexpectedly & marry...but through this, as a reader, I had the fore-knowledge that Michael is going to lose his wife & it made the reading of their love story both poignant & all the more enthralling.

I read this book while on holiday & as I knew it wouldn't be coming home with me (like the good little Bookcrosser I am, I released it) so I made a few notes of parts that struck a chord with me or quotes I particularly liked. One of the characters, Daniel, controls Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Now I don't know anything about this sort of warfare but this extract really made me think:

"Already the military was training young marines, 18,19 years old who'd go into missions with no prior experience of aerial combat. The joystick he (Daniel) now handled through each shift had recently been remodelled on that of a Sony Playstation. Daniel didn't like it, but he knew it made sense. Without knowing it, under the eyes of their parents & siblings, America would train her future pilots in bedrooms & living rooms across the country. They would fight as if the world was a free-fire zone, cocooned within the hum of servers & computers"

*shudder* I do find that a bit scary & its a passage I can't seem to forget.

I liked this too:
"Is a story half-cooked" he(Michael) asked her(Sam), "if it's only been written but not read?"
"Absolutely!"
He laughed thinking she was joking, but then he saw that she wasn't.
"Without the reader it's just thoughts on a page"< she said. "Imagination in ink. A printed tautology.
But when it's read..it's meaning gathers new association. It's like a chemical reaction. It all depends on how they react with the reader, their life, their mind"

And to end, the final sentence of the book seemed quite poetic to me...
"To bring to a close, their truths told, with this last sentence, these last words, and this full stop"

On a table by the comfy seats in the foyer/breakfast area




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