Joanna Cannon

I was offered the chanced to read this by Netgalley. I'd heard so much about The Trouble with Sheep and Goats so I jumped at the chance. Still not read that - but I now have a copy.

Three Things About Elsie

Amazon.com link

My review -

Elsie is Florence’s lifelong best friend. Florence has just fallen in her sheltered accommodation and while waiting for someone to call and help her up, she dwells on her life, both recent and in the past. A new man has come to live in one of the flats and Florence recognises him as a man she knew had died in the 1950s. It’s Elsie who helps Florence to remember the past and the secret she’s successfully hidden from herself.

This is beautifully observed and in places very funny. Her friend Jack helps her to find out what the man is up to. They engineer a trip to Whitby for the whole community in order to follow a trail. She wants to know where the name he’s using now came from and why he’s trying to drive her mad and make her appear demented. The gradual unfolding of Florence’s past is brilliantly done, with the help of Elsie, and I enjoyed the book enormously.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy.