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As She Left It by Catriona McPherson
When she was twelve years old, Opal Jones escaped her mother's endless drinking. Now, returning to their small Leeds cottage after her mum's death, Opal feels like she's gone back in time. Nosey Mrs. Pickess is still polishing her windows to a sparkle. Fishbo, Opal's ancient music teacher, still plays trumpet with his band. And much to Opal's delight, her favorite neighbor, Margaret Reid, still keeps an eye on things from the walk in front of her house.But a tragedy has struck Mote Street. Margaret's grandson, Craig, disappeared some ten years ago, and every day he's not found, shame and sorrow settle deeper into the neighborhood's forgotten corners. As the door she closed on her own dark past begins to open, Opal uncovers more secrets than she can bear about the people who were once her friends.
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First published January 1, 2013
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About the author
Catriona McPherson
52 books526 followersCatriona McPherson (she/her) was born in Scotland and immigrated to the US in 2010. She writes: preposterous 1930s private-detective stories about a toff; realistic 1940s amateur-sleuth stories about an oik; and contemporary psychothriller standalones. These are all set in Scotland with a lot of Scottish weather. She also writes modern comedies about a Scot-out-of-water in a “fictional” college town in Northern California.
She has won multiple Anthonys, Agathas, Leftys and Macavitys for her work and been shortlisted for an Edgar, three Mary Higgins Clark awards and a UK dagger
Catriona is a proud lifetime member and former national president of Sisters in Crime.
She has won multiple Anthonys, Agathas, Leftys and Macavitys for her work and been shortlisted for an Edgar, three Mary Higgins Clark awards and a UK dagger
Catriona is a proud lifetime member and former national president of Sisters in Crime.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 141 reviews
May 25, 2013
3.5 Opal left her home and alcoholic mother when she was twelve years old. There was much about that time that she did not remember. After her mother dies, Opal now nineteen returns to Mote street and discovers a mystery, a little boy had disappeared, around the same time she left. In this stand alone novel, there are three different, well maybe four different threads in which Opal finds herself involved. Many of the same people live on Mote street as where there when Opal first left and all the characters in this novel are fascinating and well rounded. By involving herself in these different mysteries, Opal tries to keep her memories from resurfacing. Of course that never works and it makes for a suspenseful, quick moving story-line. The ending wasn't quite as dramatic as I was expecting but it was one that I did not guess. I did like her portrayal of a neighborhood where everyone was affected by the disappearance of this little boy and how these neighbors knew everything about each other and at times tried to protect and take care of each other. I once lived in a neighborhood like that when I was growing up and I miss it.
April 11, 2020
I've devoured all of Catriona McPherson's standalone books (they're like that). Her later ones can be a little slapdash. But this one, her first standalone, is her best.
No actual ghosts, just haunted lives
Twenty-something Opal Jones returns for good to the scruffy, close-knit working-class Leeds neighborhood of her childhood. She finds almost all the old families still there, some more changed than others. All are haunted in different ways by a neighborhood toddler's unexplained disappearance ten years before. And all welcome Opal back with open arms (but for different reasons).
And although she's been away for thirteen years, Opal remembers each family and instinctively understands each in terms of that family's specific history.
Opal keeps noticing suspicious details, some deeply ironic. For example, she instantly recognizes her mother's hoard of empty brandy bottles as evidence of bribery: mom would never have sprung for the pricy brand herself.
McPherson's generous with fun details throughout. A bargain antique bed scares up a separate minor mystery. Birds swoop through the neighborhood grocery, banging against the hanging specials boards and "making everyone who’d ever seen The Birds put their arms over their heads and scream."
p.s.
No actual ghosts, just haunted lives
Twenty-something Opal Jones returns for good to the scruffy, close-knit working-class Leeds neighborhood of her childhood. She finds almost all the old families still there, some more changed than others. All are haunted in different ways by a neighborhood toddler's unexplained disappearance ten years before. And all welcome Opal back with open arms (but for different reasons).
And although she's been away for thirteen years, Opal remembers each family and instinctively understands each in terms of that family's specific history.
Opal keeps noticing suspicious details, some deeply ironic. For example, she instantly recognizes her mother's hoard of empty brandy bottles as evidence of bribery: mom would never have sprung for the pricy brand herself.
McPherson's generous with fun details throughout. A bargain antique bed scares up a separate minor mystery. Birds swoop through the neighborhood grocery, banging against the hanging specials boards and "making everyone who’d ever seen The Birds put their arms over their heads and scream."
p.s.
September 5, 2013
What originally brought this book to my attention and put it on my to-read list was that its author, Catriona McPherson, will be at Bouchercon this year, and I'm trying to read different authors that interest me before I attend. Then, the book's description intrigued me, promising to provide a mystery dark and deep. I'm happy to say that promises were kept, and I was well pleased with this novel.
It is a story full of deeply buried secrets, some dating as far back as the 1940's. At the center of this maelstrom of secrecy is Opal Jones, who has returned to her childhood home on Mote Street in Leeds following the death of her mother. Her reappearance occurs after an absence of some years, leaving her alcoholic mother's neglect at 12 years of age and returning as a young woman of 25. Surprisingly, Opal finds her old neighbors and friends still ensconced in the little community that the street has created. The familiarity of these people provides Opal with both comfort and confusion, which leads to her becoming involved in trying to root out and resolve their secrets as well as her own. The disappearance of Margaret's, her across-the-street neighbor, grandson ten years before Opal's reemergence serves as the focal point of mysteries that need resolution. Opal decides that she is the only one who can ferret through the lies and misinformation surrounding the boy's disappearance, and she sets out to set it all right. As she searches for answers, Opal encounters two more mysteries that she senses could be related, if not directly to the disappearance, to the well-being of the community of people to which she once more belongs.
Opal is a somewhat quirky character of whom I became fond and rooted for in her efforts to move beyond the shadows of her life. McPherson did an excellent job of developing not only the main character but the supporting cast of neighbors. Never predictable, the plot and solutions captured me from beginning to end.
It is a story full of deeply buried secrets, some dating as far back as the 1940's. At the center of this maelstrom of secrecy is Opal Jones, who has returned to her childhood home on Mote Street in Leeds following the death of her mother. Her reappearance occurs after an absence of some years, leaving her alcoholic mother's neglect at 12 years of age and returning as a young woman of 25. Surprisingly, Opal finds her old neighbors and friends still ensconced in the little community that the street has created. The familiarity of these people provides Opal with both comfort and confusion, which leads to her becoming involved in trying to root out and resolve their secrets as well as her own. The disappearance of Margaret's, her across-the-street neighbor, grandson ten years before Opal's reemergence serves as the focal point of mysteries that need resolution. Opal decides that she is the only one who can ferret through the lies and misinformation surrounding the boy's disappearance, and she sets out to set it all right. As she searches for answers, Opal encounters two more mysteries that she senses could be related, if not directly to the disappearance, to the well-being of the community of people to which she once more belongs.
Opal is a somewhat quirky character of whom I became fond and rooted for in her efforts to move beyond the shadows of her life. McPherson did an excellent job of developing not only the main character but the supporting cast of neighbors. Never predictable, the plot and solutions captured me from beginning to end.
March 12, 2015
In As She Left It, Opal Jones left her alcoholic mother when she was twelve to live with her father and step-family in Whitby. After her mother’s death, Opal finds the old home - one half of a cottage on Mote Street in Leeds - is now hers, and she moves back.
At first it seems the old neighborhood really is “as she left it” thirteen years ago. The Mote Street Boys in the corner house still play their gigs. Opal used to take trumpet lessons from one of them, Fishbo, who welcomes her back.
But Margaret Reid’s three-year-old grandson, Craig, disappeared ten years ago, on a Saturday, and the neighborhood has never recovered. And in the tops of the foot posts of a bed she delivered from an antique store, Opal finds secret messages hinting of abuse of a little girl many years ago.
Opal sets herself to solve these two mysteries, but in the process uncovers only more: Someone was paying all the house bills after Opal’s mother died. Who? And why? Mrs. Pickess, the neighborhood gossip, provided brandy in large quantities to Opal’s alcoholic mother? Why? Opal hears a man crying at night in the other, rented half of the house. Who is he? Fishbo, her beloved old music teacher, is hiding secrets of his own. And why does it start looking like Craig disappeared on a Friday instead of a Saturday?
I was mesmerized by both the brilliant plot and the lovely writing. The characters, some of the most endearing you’ll meet in a mystery, are three dimensional. Opal is unforgettable, by turns brave and nervous, gullible and cynical, bitter and hopeful, and thoroughly believable. And a thread of humor runs through it all.
As She Left It – winner of the 2014 Anthony Award for best paperback original – is the kind of mystery you read more than once.
At first it seems the old neighborhood really is “as she left it” thirteen years ago. The Mote Street Boys in the corner house still play their gigs. Opal used to take trumpet lessons from one of them, Fishbo, who welcomes her back.
But Margaret Reid’s three-year-old grandson, Craig, disappeared ten years ago, on a Saturday, and the neighborhood has never recovered. And in the tops of the foot posts of a bed she delivered from an antique store, Opal finds secret messages hinting of abuse of a little girl many years ago.
Opal sets herself to solve these two mysteries, but in the process uncovers only more: Someone was paying all the house bills after Opal’s mother died. Who? And why? Mrs. Pickess, the neighborhood gossip, provided brandy in large quantities to Opal’s alcoholic mother? Why? Opal hears a man crying at night in the other, rented half of the house. Who is he? Fishbo, her beloved old music teacher, is hiding secrets of his own. And why does it start looking like Craig disappeared on a Friday instead of a Saturday?
I was mesmerized by both the brilliant plot and the lovely writing. The characters, some of the most endearing you’ll meet in a mystery, are three dimensional. Opal is unforgettable, by turns brave and nervous, gullible and cynical, bitter and hopeful, and thoroughly believable. And a thread of humor runs through it all.
As She Left It – winner of the 2014 Anthony Award for best paperback original – is the kind of mystery you read more than once.
September 26, 2013
Really enjoyed the story and characters...until the end which was rushed, unbelievable and inconsistent.
Shame.
Shame.
April 12, 2013
I found the description of As She Left It by Catriona McPherson intriguing. I. Had. No. Idea. If a good mystery has twists and turns, unwinding into a final conclusion, As She Left It. is a labyrinth, woven and knotted, folded over and entangled in barbed wire. Arriving to the conclusion is a dark and painful journey, requiring and engaging all of your senses, probably leaving a little of your blood in the barbs. On Mote Street, a heavy sorrow hangs over every house, threatening to choke whatever threads of humanity are left. When Opal Jones come back after her mother’s death to claim her childhood home, she is returning to the darkness she escaped from years before. A young boy went missing and was never found, a stain on the heart of the neighborhood. Opal is determined to find out what happened to that child. What she discovers is that every soul on Mote Street is a tainted in some way, and some know more than they let on. Some hide secrets so deep, they should never have seen the light of day. Some are covered in guilt. No one is innocent, except maybe Opal and Craig. As Opal searches for truth, she uncovers more than she could ever have imagined in her worst nightmares. No wonder she ran away from home.
Catriona McPherson has brought each character to life with a haunting clarity. They are drawn with a quirky pen, because each personality is a little jagged, a little charming, a little pathetic, yet I liked them all, felt their pain, and often knew they were being deceitful. This doesn’t have a fast pace, full of action, this is character driven, each scene flowing one after another, like a frustrating dream you keep adding onto, night after night, wondering if you really will die if you hit bottom.
They say you can never really know another person and we often forget half of what we do know. Catriona McPherson has me wondering what I have forgotten about myself!
This ARC copy was provided by NetGalley and Midnight Ink Books in exchange for my honest review. Publication Date: June 8, 2013
Catriona McPherson has brought each character to life with a haunting clarity. They are drawn with a quirky pen, because each personality is a little jagged, a little charming, a little pathetic, yet I liked them all, felt their pain, and often knew they were being deceitful. This doesn’t have a fast pace, full of action, this is character driven, each scene flowing one after another, like a frustrating dream you keep adding onto, night after night, wondering if you really will die if you hit bottom.
They say you can never really know another person and we often forget half of what we do know. Catriona McPherson has me wondering what I have forgotten about myself!
This ARC copy was provided by NetGalley and Midnight Ink Books in exchange for my honest review. Publication Date: June 8, 2013
June 6, 2022
I found this book confusing in places and quite boring. It flitted around between the characters without seeming to go anywhere.
February 26, 2014
I very much wanted to love this book, especially after having met the author last spring. I have not read her popular Dandy Gilver books so this was my first taste. The story--a twentyish,young woman returns to her dead mother's home after a long time away--grabs the reader from the first page. The mysterious atmosphere is palpable and the characters are equally mysterious. Years before a three-year-old disappears from Mote Street shortly after the main character Opal leaves her mother's home under unexplained circumstances. When Opal does return she decides to solve the crime of the child's disappearance all the while trying to decide which of the former neighbors might have been involved. Opal also has a deep secret which comes to light in the end. However, Opal's naivete and immaturity begins to grate as the story unfolds. And while the several related mysteries are presented in a complex way, the solution is overly simplistic and offers an unsatisfying denouement.
August 20, 2021
Warning: Major Spoilers Ahead!
I, like some other readers, had to reread the ending to absorb all that had actually happened to tie up each story arc.
What I thought had happened to twelve-year-old Opal: I thought her alcoholic mother's boyfriend had raped her and she had repressed that traumatic memory. What actually happened: Opal had gotten pregnant by her 15-year-old boyfriend and, in desperation, tried to cause an abortion in their outhouse.
I appreciated the fact that the author attempted to give the "mysteries" solutions that aren't your typical derivative "reveals".
The only one that fell truly flat for me (but in a big way!) was the "Craig" storyline. I can't believe Robbie Southgate (or that reprobate of a daughter, Karen) would let Margaret and Dennis suffer so horribly for a decade (they missed out on ten years of Craig's life for goodness sake)!
One note: Opal seemed either simple-minded, possibly brain-damaged (fetal alcohol syndrome?), or an Aspy (Aspberger's Syndrome) - for twenty-five years old she does not act it or interact with others in a typical fashion.
I, like some other readers, had to reread the ending to absorb all that had actually happened to tie up each story arc.
What I thought had happened to twelve-year-old Opal: I thought her alcoholic mother's boyfriend had raped her and she had repressed that traumatic memory. What actually happened: Opal had gotten pregnant by her 15-year-old boyfriend and, in desperation, tried to cause an abortion in their outhouse.
I appreciated the fact that the author attempted to give the "mysteries" solutions that aren't your typical derivative "reveals".
The only one that fell truly flat for me (but in a big way!) was the "Craig" storyline. I can't believe Robbie Southgate (or that reprobate of a daughter, Karen) would let Margaret and Dennis suffer so horribly for a decade (they missed out on ten years of Craig's life for goodness sake)!
One note: Opal seemed either simple-minded, possibly brain-damaged (fetal alcohol syndrome?), or an Aspy (Aspberger's Syndrome) - for twenty-five years old she does not act it or interact with others in a typical fashion.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 2, 2013
This novel is a stand alone mystery by a recognized serial mystery author. The subject material is adult and gritty. It should be read as such and you will not be disappointed in the least.
A young woman, Opal Jones, finds herself back, thirteen years later, at the childhood home she ran from in Leeds, England, U.K. For the past decade plus, Opal has been sheltering in Whitby, having blanked out her past which we assume was quite traumatic and filled with alcoholism (mother's) and father's early leaving.
Opal finds instant mysteries as she returns. The first being that many letters filled with receipts and more have been collected at her Stepmother's home and not given to her...why? Who would pay her Mother's expenses and why? The neighborhood is also known for a missing child some decade earlier that seems to have been shushed up...why? Secret messages are found in Opal's new furniture...what is going on? A lifelong friend is dying but is also living a mystery...does Opal know anyone really? The final mystery, is why does Opal find herself compelled to solve these mysteries and why does she feel that they link with her own self?
This novel is gritty, steamy, and makes you feel Opal's confusion as she searches for answers. You feel the distrust Opal begins to develop towards persons she thought she knew. It does ramble a bit and you wonder about 2/3rds of the way whether the many threads will even entwine into an answer that solves the plots.
I did enjoy this novel. I won it in a contest at DruAnn Love's blog site and it makes me want to enter more. I enjoyed being introduced to this fine author.
A young woman, Opal Jones, finds herself back, thirteen years later, at the childhood home she ran from in Leeds, England, U.K. For the past decade plus, Opal has been sheltering in Whitby, having blanked out her past which we assume was quite traumatic and filled with alcoholism (mother's) and father's early leaving.
Opal finds instant mysteries as she returns. The first being that many letters filled with receipts and more have been collected at her Stepmother's home and not given to her...why? Who would pay her Mother's expenses and why? The neighborhood is also known for a missing child some decade earlier that seems to have been shushed up...why? Secret messages are found in Opal's new furniture...what is going on? A lifelong friend is dying but is also living a mystery...does Opal know anyone really? The final mystery, is why does Opal find herself compelled to solve these mysteries and why does she feel that they link with her own self?
This novel is gritty, steamy, and makes you feel Opal's confusion as she searches for answers. You feel the distrust Opal begins to develop towards persons she thought she knew. It does ramble a bit and you wonder about 2/3rds of the way whether the many threads will even entwine into an answer that solves the plots.
I did enjoy this novel. I won it in a contest at DruAnn Love's blog site and it makes me want to enter more. I enjoyed being introduced to this fine author.
May 12, 2014
I was intrigued by this story from the very beginning. Opal had such a strange situation from the beginning.
I really enjoyed this book and once I got to the 35-40% mark I couldn't put it down.
Opal's mother has passed away and she is somewhat lured back to her mother's home to take possession of it. Someone, wants her to take possession of her mother's house to keep anyone else from getting their hands on it and possibly discovering the secrets hidden within.
Opal happens to buy a bed that is a mismatched head and footboard and finds pieces of a message hidden inside. Add the fact that a little boy disappeared ten years earlier from her mother's street, and she decides she's going to find out what happened to him and an old friend and teacher is dying, and she wants to find his family. Opal's hands are full and there are no end of suspects in the disappearance. I was guessing right up to the end.
I really enjoyed this book and once I got to the 35-40% mark I couldn't put it down.
Opal's mother has passed away and she is somewhat lured back to her mother's home to take possession of it. Someone, wants her to take possession of her mother's house to keep anyone else from getting their hands on it and possibly discovering the secrets hidden within.
Opal happens to buy a bed that is a mismatched head and footboard and finds pieces of a message hidden inside. Add the fact that a little boy disappeared ten years earlier from her mother's street, and she decides she's going to find out what happened to him and an old friend and teacher is dying, and she wants to find his family. Opal's hands are full and there are no end of suspects in the disappearance. I was guessing right up to the end.
July 2, 2016
From the first page of Catriona Macpherson's AS SHE LEFT IT, I was sucked into the intriguing set-up and each chapter drew me further into the tangled web of Opal Jones' life. Macpherson is a masterful storyteller; her characters slowly reveal their secrets, from Margaret to Dennis to Fishbo and Mrs. Pickess, revolving around a vanished child ten years previous. Opal also gets involved in another odd situation, and all the threads are woven into a surprising end. A wonderfully rich novel set in a working-class neighborhood of Leeds, Ms. Macpherson truly knows this world.
June 30, 2014
Book Review originally published here: http://www.iheartreading.net/mini-rev...
Mysterious atmosphere, suspense palpable from the first page. Opal is an intriguing main character, and I felt for her, and all the hardships she went through. I enjoyed how the mystery slowly unfolded, and we figured out more and more about the characters. Solid mystery read.
Mysterious atmosphere, suspense palpable from the first page. Opal is an intriguing main character, and I felt for her, and all the hardships she went through. I enjoyed how the mystery slowly unfolded, and we figured out more and more about the characters. Solid mystery read.
October 9, 2013
Lame, but I finished it because I wanted to know the answer. Annoying protagonist, too many coincidences, too many stories in one book.
October 23, 2015
This took me awhile to get into. Then I had to reread the ending to make sure that I really understood everything that had happened.
April 20, 2020
This book just doesn't hold together for the simple reason that one must believe that loving desperate grandparents don't tell the police everything they know about the disappearance of their grandson because it will make them look bad. Further, that something is a badly kept secret that the whole neighborhood knew, but not one of them ever told the police. That is a lot to swallow, and in the end, I just couldn't make it go down.
Opal left the home of her alcoholic mother when she was twelve and went to live with her father and his new wife. Now, after her mother has died, she has returned to the old neighborhood. She learns that after she left, the small boy she used to babysit for mysteriously disappeared. She decides that she will find that child, dead or alive, and alleviate the suffering of the grandparents. In meeting her old neighbors after her long absence, she discovers other secrets she feels she can solve. There are things in her past that she doesn't want to face, and involving herself this way will keep her from addressing them.
In the course of her investigations, she gets nearly everything wrong, and when she does figure something out, we are given small tantalizing glimpses of the truth, with most of what happened left for the reader to surmise, while the characters in the book nod knowingly. I am not a fan.
By the time the book reaches its rushed, illogical conclusion, I am thoroughly underwhelmed and find that I don't really care anymore.
Opal left the home of her alcoholic mother when she was twelve and went to live with her father and his new wife. Now, after her mother has died, she has returned to the old neighborhood. She learns that after she left, the small boy she used to babysit for mysteriously disappeared. She decides that she will find that child, dead or alive, and alleviate the suffering of the grandparents. In meeting her old neighbors after her long absence, she discovers other secrets she feels she can solve. There are things in her past that she doesn't want to face, and involving herself this way will keep her from addressing them.
In the course of her investigations, she gets nearly everything wrong, and when she does figure something out, we are given small tantalizing glimpses of the truth, with most of what happened left for the reader to surmise, while the characters in the book nod knowingly. I am not a fan.
By the time the book reaches its rushed, illogical conclusion, I am thoroughly underwhelmed and find that I don't really care anymore.
October 8, 2025
I had trouble with this one because I really liked Opal as a character — her dialogue, spunk, and curiosity — but the mysteries she was trying to solve all seemed disjointed and unconnected. Then — trying not spoil here — the author leaves out key details that help the reader become invested in the story.
To me, a good murder/thriller/mystery is something the reader can mull over themselves... not just be spoon fed. There is a balance between figuring out the plot in the first chapter and having no idea what is going on until the end. I was in the latter mode for 99 percent of this book. The neat little buttoning-up of the mysteries was not even solved until the epilogue, with information not in the text until those last pages.
And don't get me started on the loose ends... the concrete in the outhouse, for one? ....
To me, a good murder/thriller/mystery is something the reader can mull over themselves... not just be spoon fed. There is a balance between figuring out the plot in the first chapter and having no idea what is going on until the end. I was in the latter mode for 99 percent of this book. The neat little buttoning-up of the mysteries was not even solved until the epilogue, with information not in the text until those last pages.
And don't get me started on the loose ends... the concrete in the outhouse, for one? ....
October 28, 2018
More like 3.5 stars. I loved the first 2 books of hers that I read but this one was a bit abrupt, and came close to the "unreliable narrator" genre, which I hate. I think the author really polished her craft after this book, since it was the first stand-alone that she wrote.
I did enjoy the setting, and the diverse cast of characters. Norah's house was a very rich environment for my imagination, very like Ms Havasham's house in Dickens. I also enjoyed how the stories began to come together.
Here's hoping Catriona McPherson continues to write mysteries like these. Even though I read them out of order, it appears they get better and better.
I did enjoy the setting, and the diverse cast of characters. Norah's house was a very rich environment for my imagination, very like Ms Havasham's house in Dickens. I also enjoyed how the stories began to come together.
Here's hoping Catriona McPherson continues to write mysteries like these. Even though I read them out of order, it appears they get better and better.
July 8, 2022
A low class young woman returns to her old neighborhood after her alcoholic mother dies. She takes up residence in her mother's decrepit council house. She quickly immerses herself into local mysteries, namely the case of a missing boy, the story behind troubling notes hidden in a second hand bed frame and reuniting her dying mentor with his family.
This book meandered. The mysteries had virtually no suspense. The characters are not interesting or engaging.The resolution is silly. The missing boy story is unbelievable. Everythi g is too coincidental. The main character, Opal, is an unlikable mess.
This book meandered. The mysteries had virtually no suspense. The characters are not interesting or engaging.The resolution is silly. The missing boy story is unbelievable. Everythi g is too coincidental. The main character, Opal, is an unlikable mess.
March 17, 2021
Half-way through and I found myself skimming. I really disliked Opal - so scattered, sometimes her age but other times a teenager in a 27-year-old body; seriously couldn't remember taking in a neighbor's groceries, parceling them in the refrigerator, then in five minutes completely forgetting about them when neighbor came for the order?; the ending was meh; and, overall, the people and how they acted were just so improbable; the dialogue was just ridiculous; missing so many obvious clues was just beyond me. I leave it there.
August 14, 2021
What happens when you don't remember?
A lifetime of forgetting, of putting it away, of hiding the key and then what?
Does anyone know how hard life can be? Or why it has to be? Is it through living or dreaming or waking that it gets better?... or worse? There's a journey in life - through life, really - with covered pathways and u-turns and turn arounds and going back or going forward. Each step is just another on a path that keeps moving. So many twists, so much pain, so many secrets. And always there is an answer, if you just keep reading.
A lifetime of forgetting, of putting it away, of hiding the key and then what?
Does anyone know how hard life can be? Or why it has to be? Is it through living or dreaming or waking that it gets better?... or worse? There's a journey in life - through life, really - with covered pathways and u-turns and turn arounds and going back or going forward. Each step is just another on a path that keeps moving. So many twists, so much pain, so many secrets. And always there is an answer, if you just keep reading.
August 15, 2025
I really wanted to love this book because of its premise but I found it to be a long, dry read. I appreciate the heck out of details, but I found much of it to be redundant and not progressing the plot... I found myself having to re-read some parts because I got lost along the way. I stuck around for the plot and for Opal because I was rooting for her. The suspense was killing me and I definitely WAS NOT ready for the plot twists at the end!!!!! I would have never guessed/suspected that outcome!!!!
November 28, 2017
I really wanted to like it, to love it. The book had so much potential but it just fell flat for me. I loved the idea of what the main character was trying to do but I felt that the majority of the book was a lot of bla bla blaing .
Gave it two stars because it wasn't that bad that I didn't want to finish the book. I think saying the it was "ok" is the best , shortest way to explain the book.
Gave it two stars because it wasn't that bad that I didn't want to finish the book. I think saying the it was "ok" is the best , shortest way to explain the book.
May 26, 2022
I continue to be impressed with Catriona McPherson's writing. Every book has a plot that seems to be taking you one way, but has so many delightful connections and subplots, that you may end up somewhere else entirely.
How have I not known about her before? I've just discovered her in the last year or so. And wow. Her standalone novels are amazing. Her Dandy Gilver series is a joy to read.
Vacation reading at it's best!
How have I not known about her before? I've just discovered her in the last year or so. And wow. Her standalone novels are amazing. Her Dandy Gilver series is a joy to read.
Vacation reading at it's best!
June 21, 2017
After reading many of the Dandy Giver books this was a little bit of a letdown. The idea of Opal Jones wanting to solve mysteries around her is intriguing as is her efforts. But the ending was way too rushed and confusing. It's as if she suddenly had to end it in ten minutes so she wrote it all down without rereading it. I liked it but it was a letdown.
May 15, 2018
As She Left It is a story following the events immediately after our protagonist, Opal Jones, returns to her hometown of Leeds following her mother's death. Upon her return she is quickly drawn into the mystery of a boy who disappeared five years prior, and the book takes us along the events that follow.
There was a very long and drawn out exposition and it felt like McPherson tried to explain too much backstory as the book went on. It was supposed to be a mystery I suppose but most of the book didn't give off any sort of that vibe until the end, which without spoiling, I would say was just not good.
I overall didn't get much enjoyment out of this book and was very disappointed by the ending. I would not likely recommend this book to most people, only those who enjoy slow reads with very little action or room for thought. This is my interpretation at least.
There was a very long and drawn out exposition and it felt like McPherson tried to explain too much backstory as the book went on. It was supposed to be a mystery I suppose but most of the book didn't give off any sort of that vibe until the end, which without spoiling, I would say was just not good.
I overall didn't get much enjoyment out of this book and was very disappointed by the ending. I would not likely recommend this book to most people, only those who enjoy slow reads with very little action or room for thought. This is my interpretation at least.
February 11, 2022
As She Left It. by Catriona McPherson.
Didn’t like this book much at all .. but being the type of person who does not like to leave a book until it is finished. I persevered until the end .. even though it took over a month to read. Most books will only take a few days to complete for me.
I found it a confusing story to follow.
Didn’t like this book much at all .. but being the type of person who does not like to leave a book until it is finished. I persevered until the end .. even though it took over a month to read. Most books will only take a few days to complete for me.
I found it a confusing story to follow.
December 3, 2022
Nope! I now recall trying to read this book before. It's a story that's very similar to another one I read years ago. Anyway, I got to chapter five and decided that I wouldn't go on. That's when the main character began to lie in order to get a job. Why? I have a few ideas but can't be bothered about reading further in order to find out.
July 25, 2017
I read this book on the recommendation of a friend and because the author lives in Davis. I had a difficult time getting into the book, but half way through it, I became intrigued. The story lines seemed to come together at the end (I think), but I still remain a bit confused!
October 29, 2017
i'm giving this four stars cos i was in the zone for so much of the book - but the end seemed rushed and i was all over the place, what? who? eh? - not the only book i've found this with i have to say but a juddering end to what was up til then an enjoyable read.
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