A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon

I’ve always thought Joanna Cannon’s blend of life experience and perceptive eye made for a compelling mix on the page, regardless of the genre. I’ve previously spoken of her 2016 debut book The Trouble with Goats and Sheep and her “small but powerful memoir” Breaking & Mending as having “beguiling adjectives, poetic complexity, and disarming insight.” She also uses that same enthralling writing style to blend nuanced character development and forensic plotting in her most recent book, A Tidy Ending.

All the way home, my mother’s voice is with me. It travels with me on pavement that has been damaged by the trips of other people. It follows me past the plastic swings at a deserted park, and we pause together as the traffic light changes before a swarm of oncoming vehicles.

The Maid by Nita Prose and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman come to mind when comparing the first-person narrative of the main character Linda in A Tidy Ending. Linda’s worldview is limited and significantly influenced by terrible events from her past.

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Mother complains that I pay too much attention to the outside world and that I hang onto things when everyone else has let them go, but that’s simply how God designed me, and you never know when that type of knowledge will be important.

Readers may relate to Linda’s social clumsiness and are intrigued by it. The temporal gaps between Cannon’s other “Now” and retrospective narratives get smaller as we travel deeper and deeper into Linda’s mind, though, and a strong sense of dread develops.

Back gardens are fascinating because they reveal a person’s true character. not like a house’s front. The individuality is all trimmed back in the front, which is always coated in a coat of what others want you to see. The whole tale is revealed in the backyard garden. Pegged out last week along a washing line…

This mystery appeals to people who prefer the thrill of puzzle-solving to the adrenaline of the pursuit. Joanna Cannon’s A Tidy Ending is brimming with moral ambiguity that will have you scratching your head and ominous turns galore. It’s also shot through with her lovable, understated literary sense.

About The Book

A NICE, NORMAL HOUSE

Since escaping the traumatic circumstances of her upbringing in Wales, Linda has resided in this area. A far cry from the beautiful existence she sees in the glossy catalogues that used to come through the door, she now sits in her kitchen wondering if this is all there is. Running the Hoover and making fish fingers for tea.

A NICE, NORMAL HUSBAND

The fact that Terry picks his teeth, tracks dirt about the house, and spends the most of his time in front of the TV show that he is not flawless. But everything appears to be rather normal until he starts working strange hours, which coincides with the neighborhood’s first missing young ladies.

A NICE, NORMAL LIFE…

Maybe some of that perfection would rub off on Linda if she could simply find Rebecca, who had lived in the house before them. However, there are times when the grass isn’t always greener since you can’t change who you are at your core and something evil is hiding behind the net curtains on Cavendish Avenue.