What do you think?
Rate this book
A Tidy Ending
A delightfully sinister novel about a married woman living a nice, quiet suburban life—but things aren’t always what they seem…
Linda has lived in a quiet neighborhood since fleeing the dark events of her childhood in Wales. Now she sits in her kitchen, wondering if this is all there is: pushing the vacuum around and cooking fish sticks for dinner, a far cry from the glamorous lifestyle she sees in the glossy magazines coming through the mail slot addressed to the previous occupant, Rebecca.
Linda’s husband Terry isn’t perfect—he picks his teeth, tracks dirt through the house, and spends most of his time in front of the TV. But that seems fairly standard—until he starts keeping odd hours at work, at around the same time young women in the town start to go missing.
If only Linda could track down and befriend Rebecca, maybe some of that enviable lifestyle would rub off on her and she wouldn’t have to worry about what Terry is up to. But the grass isn’t always greener and you can’t change who you really are. And some secrets can’t stay buried forever…
Linda has lived in a quiet neighborhood since fleeing the dark events of her childhood in Wales. Now she sits in her kitchen, wondering if this is all there is: pushing the vacuum around and cooking fish sticks for dinner, a far cry from the glamorous lifestyle she sees in the glossy magazines coming through the mail slot addressed to the previous occupant, Rebecca.
Linda’s husband Terry isn’t perfect—he picks his teeth, tracks dirt through the house, and spends most of his time in front of the TV. But that seems fairly standard—until he starts keeping odd hours at work, at around the same time young women in the town start to go missing.
If only Linda could track down and befriend Rebecca, maybe some of that enviable lifestyle would rub off on her and she wouldn’t have to worry about what Terry is up to. But the grass isn’t always greener and you can’t change who you really are. And some secrets can’t stay buried forever…
352 pages, Hardcover
First published August 2, 2022
444 people are currently reading
13921 people want to read
About the author
Joanna Cannon
16 books976 followersLibrarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Joanna Cannon is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling debut novel The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, which has sold over 250,000 copies in the UK alone and has been published in 15 countries. The novel was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize, shortlisted for The Bookseller Industry Awards 2017 and won the 2016 BAMB Reader Award. Joanna has been interviewed in The Guardian, The Observer, The Sunday Times, The Times, and Good Housekeeping magazine, and her writing has appeared in the Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail, and the Guardian, amongst others. She has appeared on BBC Breakfast, BBC News Channel’s Meet the Author, interviewed on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5, and is a regular at literary festivals across the country including Edinburgh and Cheltenham. Joanna left school at fifteen with one O-level and worked her way through many different jobs – barmaid, kennel maid, pizza delivery expert – before returning to school in her thirties and qualifying as a doctor. Her work as a psychiatrist and interest in people on the fringes of society continue to inspire her writing, and Joanna currently volunteers for Arts for Health, an organisation bringing creative arts to NHS staff and patients. Joanna Cannon’s second novel Three Things About Elsie is published in January 2018 and explores memory, friendship and old age. She lives in the Peak District with her family and her dog.
Joanna Cannon is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling debut novel The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, which has sold over 250,000 copies in the UK alone and has been published in 15 countries. The novel was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize, shortlisted for The Bookseller Industry Awards 2017 and won the 2016 BAMB Reader Award. Joanna has been interviewed in The Guardian, The Observer, The Sunday Times, The Times, and Good Housekeeping magazine, and her writing has appeared in the Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail, and the Guardian, amongst others. She has appeared on BBC Breakfast, BBC News Channel’s Meet the Author, interviewed on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5, and is a regular at literary festivals across the country including Edinburgh and Cheltenham. Joanna left school at fifteen with one O-level and worked her way through many different jobs – barmaid, kennel maid, pizza delivery expert – before returning to school in her thirties and qualifying as a doctor. Her work as a psychiatrist and interest in people on the fringes of society continue to inspire her writing, and Joanna currently volunteers for Arts for Health, an organisation bringing creative arts to NHS staff and patients. Joanna Cannon’s second novel Three Things About Elsie is published in January 2018 and explores memory, friendship and old age. She lives in the Peak District with her family and her dog.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,176 reviews
July 30, 2022
I loved this! Five big stars for this twisted tale.
A Tidy Ending perfects the creep factor. Linda is not quite right. She lives mostly in her mind, imagining other lives. She puts up with her nagging mother and her lackluster husband. But she has no friends, no life outside of taking care of her home and working at the charity shop. Meanwhile, the town is caught up in the murders of several young women.
The story is told in a then and now fashion. I don’t want to say too much about the plot because the beauty of this story is watching it slowly unfold. I found Linda to be an engaging character in her weird way. There’s a dark humor to the story, mostly thanks to Linda’s unique way of seeing the world. As the plot went on, I found myself chuckling more and more.
This isn’t a mystery per se, but there are several plot lines I couldn’t wait to see how they would play out. Who was the serial murderer? Why is Linda now in a mental ward?
My thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for an advance copy of this book.
My husband just finished this and was also a big fan.
A Tidy Ending perfects the creep factor. Linda is not quite right. She lives mostly in her mind, imagining other lives. She puts up with her nagging mother and her lackluster husband. But she has no friends, no life outside of taking care of her home and working at the charity shop. Meanwhile, the town is caught up in the murders of several young women.
The story is told in a then and now fashion. I don’t want to say too much about the plot because the beauty of this story is watching it slowly unfold. I found Linda to be an engaging character in her weird way. There’s a dark humor to the story, mostly thanks to Linda’s unique way of seeing the world. As the plot went on, I found myself chuckling more and more.
This isn’t a mystery per se, but there are several plot lines I couldn’t wait to see how they would play out. Who was the serial murderer? Why is Linda now in a mental ward?
My thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for an advance copy of this book.
My husband just finished this and was also a big fan.
May 9, 2022
EXCERPT: There are no letterboxes to shout through here, of course. No garden wall to stand on and no doorbell to ring. All the tiny details, all the quiet, unnoticed edges of the world have been taken away, and it's only when they're gone you realise how much you depended on them to make sense of everything else.
There are newspapers lying around, but every time I pick one up it has holes in the pages where articles have been removed. Things that might distress people or make them feel uncomfortable. Although one person's distress is another person's couldn't-care-less, so I don't know how they decide which bits to take out.
'It would be nice,' I said to a woman sitting next to me in the day room, 'if life was like that. If you could just cut around the pieces you didn't care for.'
She didn't reply. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes, it's as though you haven't spoken at all, as if your world or their world are running quite happily side by side, but there isn't any way of moving between one and the other.
ABOUT 'A TIDY ENDING': Linda has lived in a quiet neighborhood since fleeing the dark events of her childhood in Wales. Now she sits in her kitchen, wondering if this is all there is: pushing the vacuum around and cooking fish sticks for dinner, a far cry from the glamorous lifestyle she sees in the glossy magazines coming through the mail slot addressed to the previous occupant, Rebecca.
Linda’s husband Terry isn’t perfect—he picks his teeth, tracks dirt through the house, and spends most of his time in front of the TV. But that seems fairly standard—until he starts keeping odd hours at work, at around the same time young women in the town start to go missing.
If only Linda could track down and befriend Rebecca, maybe some of that enviable lifestyle would rub off on her and she wouldn’t have to worry about what Terry is up to. But the grass isn’t always greener and you can’t change who you really are. And some secrets can’t stay buried forever…
MY THOUGHTS: Very clever, Joanna Cannon. I had absolutely no idea where you were taking me, not the slightest suspicion. My jaw hit the floor at the end and I laughed, probably a tad hysterically. It was just so beautifully unexpected.
Linda is an interesting character. Initially she may not appear so but there is more going on under that tatty blue quilted house coat than it appears. Her husband, Terry, is an irritant. He is messy, uncaring and leaves her notes telling her what to do. She has no friends, and her mother is all show but no real use. She was always much closer to her father, and she misses that. She has an ingrained distrust of the police after they did what they did to him.
I have read and loved everything Joanna Cannon has written, and she has surprised me again with this entertaining, character driven mystery that has dark undertones.
I can't wait to read whatever Cannon writes next.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
#ATidyEnding #NetGalley
I: @drjocannon @harpercollinsuk @harperfiction @boroughpress
T: @JoannaCannon @HarperCollinsUK @BoroughPress
#contemporaryfiction #domesticdrama #murdermystery
THE AUTHOR: Joanna Cannon was born in a small Derbyshire town, at the very edge of the Peak District National Park. As a child she discovered what would become a life-long fascination with words, stories and character.
Her love of narrative had always drawn her towards psychiatry, but it wasn’t until her thirties that she decided to go back to college and finally complete the A-levels she’d abandoned some 15 years earlier.
Before specialising in psychiatry, Joanna rotated through a series of hospital jobs, from A&E to palliative care. It was around this time she began writing a blog in order to make sense of her experiences. She soon found herself writing the book that would become her bestselling debut, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep.
DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins UK, Harper Fiction, The Borough Press via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com
This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
There are newspapers lying around, but every time I pick one up it has holes in the pages where articles have been removed. Things that might distress people or make them feel uncomfortable. Although one person's distress is another person's couldn't-care-less, so I don't know how they decide which bits to take out.
'It would be nice,' I said to a woman sitting next to me in the day room, 'if life was like that. If you could just cut around the pieces you didn't care for.'
She didn't reply. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes, it's as though you haven't spoken at all, as if your world or their world are running quite happily side by side, but there isn't any way of moving between one and the other.
ABOUT 'A TIDY ENDING': Linda has lived in a quiet neighborhood since fleeing the dark events of her childhood in Wales. Now she sits in her kitchen, wondering if this is all there is: pushing the vacuum around and cooking fish sticks for dinner, a far cry from the glamorous lifestyle she sees in the glossy magazines coming through the mail slot addressed to the previous occupant, Rebecca.
Linda’s husband Terry isn’t perfect—he picks his teeth, tracks dirt through the house, and spends most of his time in front of the TV. But that seems fairly standard—until he starts keeping odd hours at work, at around the same time young women in the town start to go missing.
If only Linda could track down and befriend Rebecca, maybe some of that enviable lifestyle would rub off on her and she wouldn’t have to worry about what Terry is up to. But the grass isn’t always greener and you can’t change who you really are. And some secrets can’t stay buried forever…
MY THOUGHTS: Very clever, Joanna Cannon. I had absolutely no idea where you were taking me, not the slightest suspicion. My jaw hit the floor at the end and I laughed, probably a tad hysterically. It was just so beautifully unexpected.
Linda is an interesting character. Initially she may not appear so but there is more going on under that tatty blue quilted house coat than it appears. Her husband, Terry, is an irritant. He is messy, uncaring and leaves her notes telling her what to do. She has no friends, and her mother is all show but no real use. She was always much closer to her father, and she misses that. She has an ingrained distrust of the police after they did what they did to him.
I have read and loved everything Joanna Cannon has written, and she has surprised me again with this entertaining, character driven mystery that has dark undertones.
I can't wait to read whatever Cannon writes next.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
#ATidyEnding #NetGalley
I: @drjocannon @harpercollinsuk @harperfiction @boroughpress
T: @JoannaCannon @HarperCollinsUK @BoroughPress
#contemporaryfiction #domesticdrama #murdermystery
THE AUTHOR: Joanna Cannon was born in a small Derbyshire town, at the very edge of the Peak District National Park. As a child she discovered what would become a life-long fascination with words, stories and character.
Her love of narrative had always drawn her towards psychiatry, but it wasn’t until her thirties that she decided to go back to college and finally complete the A-levels she’d abandoned some 15 years earlier.
Before specialising in psychiatry, Joanna rotated through a series of hospital jobs, from A&E to palliative care. It was around this time she began writing a blog in order to make sense of her experiences. She soon found herself writing the book that would become her bestselling debut, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep.
DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins UK, Harper Fiction, The Borough Press via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com
This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
July 7, 2022
Tired of keeping house and catering to a husband that barely acknowledges her, Linda wants a better life. And now recently, he seems to be hiding something. She wants to know what, and so does someone else. The police!
Linda is about to find an obsession that will take her mind off her own dismal life. She has her sights on Rebecca, the former owner of the home she now lives in. Rebecca is everything Linda wants to be and she’s positive they could be the best of friends. Now if she could just find a way to meet her.
I loved the premise of this book and was so excited to read it. But I had difficulty connecting with the characters and storyline. It seemed slow paced for the first half. And while the ending was quite ingenious, it just seemed to be lacking something overall.
I’m a bit of an outlier here. So have a look at the many rave reviews this book received from our friends and fellow reviewers.
Thank you to Goodreads Giveaways.
Linda is about to find an obsession that will take her mind off her own dismal life. She has her sights on Rebecca, the former owner of the home she now lives in. Rebecca is everything Linda wants to be and she’s positive they could be the best of friends. Now if she could just find a way to meet her.
I loved the premise of this book and was so excited to read it. But I had difficulty connecting with the characters and storyline. It seemed slow paced for the first half. And while the ending was quite ingenious, it just seemed to be lacking something overall.
I’m a bit of an outlier here. So have a look at the many rave reviews this book received from our friends and fellow reviewers.
Thank you to Goodreads Giveaways.
May 15, 2022
In a Nutshell: Outlier review alert! Strongly mixed feelings, but the ending was too farfetched for me to relish the overall book. I started off with 4.5 stars and my rating kept steadily dipping as I progressed through the book.
Story:
The story has four broad tracks – Linda’s dark past, the girls’ murders, Terry’s fishy behaviour, and Linda’s obsession with Rebecca Finch. While there is an underlying thread connecting everything, it doesn’t become apparent until the final 10% or so. So it is a long, slow-drawn-out book where the middle seems very repetitive. (Having the audiobook helped somewhat with the slow pacing.)
On the positive side, there is plenty of dark humour in the book. There are loads of quotable quotes. The two timelines generate enough of a curiosity to know what’s happening (though this doesn’t work very well in the audiobook.)
Linda’s character is what will make or break the book for you. She is too sure of herself and her capability to judge people and situations, but it is very clear to us that she always jumps to the wrong conclusions. For a great part of the book, she comes out as likeable but overly naïve. Her fondness for her father despite the dark secret and her complicated relationship with her toxic mother make her more vulnerable in our eyes. But then comes the big reveal in the climax and it feels like we have been taken for a ride. This was where the book failed me. An unreliable narrator needs to be written very carefully in order to be convincing at the end, all the more so if the narration is in first person. A sudden turnaround doesn’t make any sense. Moreover, a character being unreliable unknowingly is very different from one acting unreliable deliberately. The latter style never works for me.
Most of the other characters aren’t layered. None of the characters are likeable. Linda comes close to being pitied but even that disappears as the story progresses and she turns quite annoying. Hardly anything happens till the first 80% and then there’s a surge of activity. Linda’s character is stuck on repeat ‘duh’ mode until the surprise climax. There’s loads of rambling as well, a disappointing side-effect of the unreliable first person pov. I would have still rated this book a 3.5 had it had a better ending. But it was too farfetched for my liking and came out of nowhere. I always prefer endings to be gradually built up from the plot. (Such an irony that I hated the ending of a book named “A Tidy Ending”!)
The audiobook, clocking at almost 11 hours, is narrated by Lissa Berry. She does a good job of narrating Linda and has a lovely, honey-smooth voice but I somehow kept tuning off from her narration due to the way Linda’s character was written. It took me 3-4 tries to get into the audiobook and stay focussed.
Lately, there have been too many books on dysfunctional characters with mental health issues, so a book needs to have something special to make it stand out. This one didn’t do anything for me. I feel that I might have liked this book slightly more if I had read it, but I doubt it would have been a 5 star read for me even then. It was more tedious than tidy for me.
Then again, this is an outlier opinion. So please check out the other reviews before you make up your mind. Note that Goodreads is showing this book to be a mystery. There’s hardly any edge-of-the-seat kind of suspense in the story. Most of it reads like contemporary drama. So keep your expectations in accordance with this. This will work very well for book club discussions.
2 stars.
My thanks to HarperCollins UK Audio and NetGalley for the ALC of “A Tidy Ending”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook. Sorry this didn’t work out so well.
***********************
Join me on the Facebook group, Readers Forever! , for more reviews, book-related discussions and fun.
Story:
Linda has a dark secret connected to her childhood in Wales. Now she lives in a quiet suburban neighbourhood with her husband Terry. While she goes about her routine work, she wonders if there’s more to life, as she can see in the glossy magazines that keep coming to her house, but addressed to the earlier owner Rebecca Finch. Linda decides that the best way for her to have the lifestyle she wants is to track down Rebecca and emulate her. While all this is happening, there are some young girls murdered in the neighbourhood and Terry is suddenly acting fishy. If there any connection between all of these happenings? You’ll need to read the book and find out.
The story is written in the first person perspective of Linda and comes from two timelines – Now' and what I suppose is 'Then'.
The story has four broad tracks – Linda’s dark past, the girls’ murders, Terry’s fishy behaviour, and Linda’s obsession with Rebecca Finch. While there is an underlying thread connecting everything, it doesn’t become apparent until the final 10% or so. So it is a long, slow-drawn-out book where the middle seems very repetitive. (Having the audiobook helped somewhat with the slow pacing.)
On the positive side, there is plenty of dark humour in the book. There are loads of quotable quotes. The two timelines generate enough of a curiosity to know what’s happening (though this doesn’t work very well in the audiobook.)
Linda’s character is what will make or break the book for you. She is too sure of herself and her capability to judge people and situations, but it is very clear to us that she always jumps to the wrong conclusions. For a great part of the book, she comes out as likeable but overly naïve. Her fondness for her father despite the dark secret and her complicated relationship with her toxic mother make her more vulnerable in our eyes. But then comes the big reveal in the climax and it feels like we have been taken for a ride. This was where the book failed me. An unreliable narrator needs to be written very carefully in order to be convincing at the end, all the more so if the narration is in first person. A sudden turnaround doesn’t make any sense. Moreover, a character being unreliable unknowingly is very different from one acting unreliable deliberately. The latter style never works for me.
Most of the other characters aren’t layered. None of the characters are likeable. Linda comes close to being pitied but even that disappears as the story progresses and she turns quite annoying. Hardly anything happens till the first 80% and then there’s a surge of activity. Linda’s character is stuck on repeat ‘duh’ mode until the surprise climax. There’s loads of rambling as well, a disappointing side-effect of the unreliable first person pov. I would have still rated this book a 3.5 had it had a better ending. But it was too farfetched for my liking and came out of nowhere. I always prefer endings to be gradually built up from the plot. (Such an irony that I hated the ending of a book named “A Tidy Ending”!)
The audiobook, clocking at almost 11 hours, is narrated by Lissa Berry. She does a good job of narrating Linda and has a lovely, honey-smooth voice but I somehow kept tuning off from her narration due to the way Linda’s character was written. It took me 3-4 tries to get into the audiobook and stay focussed.
Lately, there have been too many books on dysfunctional characters with mental health issues, so a book needs to have something special to make it stand out. This one didn’t do anything for me. I feel that I might have liked this book slightly more if I had read it, but I doubt it would have been a 5 star read for me even then. It was more tedious than tidy for me.
Then again, this is an outlier opinion. So please check out the other reviews before you make up your mind. Note that Goodreads is showing this book to be a mystery. There’s hardly any edge-of-the-seat kind of suspense in the story. Most of it reads like contemporary drama. So keep your expectations in accordance with this. This will work very well for book club discussions.
2 stars.
My thanks to HarperCollins UK Audio and NetGalley for the ALC of “A Tidy Ending”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook. Sorry this didn’t work out so well.
***********************
Join me on the Facebook group, Readers Forever! , for more reviews, book-related discussions and fun.
November 4, 2021
Linda Hammett keeps herself to herself though always tries to be helpful. How do others view her? She’s married to Terry and let’s just say he fills the space but fulfils little else. She dreams of the life she’s seen in catalogues rather than the mundane worn things they possess. When another girl goes missing in the area in which she lives the whole neighbourhood gets caught up in the drama and a net of suspicion is cast. Linda tells her story from Then (six weeks ago) to Today. As she tells her tale the big question is, just how reliable a narrator is she? Only time will tell.
I’m a big fan of Joanna Cannon and I think she’s knocked it out the park yet again. I love the way she writes, I love being in Linda’s presence for several highly entertaining hours. I don’t want to say too much about Linda as it may spoil the delight and pleasure of her company so I’ll settle for saying that it’s totally fascinating viewing things through her eyes. At times it’s extremely funny, albeit darkly so, her way of speaking can be most amusing but she’s also very perceptive and clever so you try interpret the inflections and nuances to detect the truth. It’s quite an emotional rollercoaster read and frequently it’s sad as you see the impact of judgements or the past catching up with the present. All the characterisation is good such as Linda’s mother Eunice who my mother would have described as ‘quite a card’ but Linda’s characterisation is outstanding. The ending is cracking, it’s a belter and an absolute doozy of jaw dropper which I couldn’t help but admire!
Overall, what a terrific read. It’s such a well written character driven book that has all the ingredients I like in a well executed novel.
With thanks to Netgalley and especially to HarperCollins, HarperFiction, The Borough Press for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review
I’m a big fan of Joanna Cannon and I think she’s knocked it out the park yet again. I love the way she writes, I love being in Linda’s presence for several highly entertaining hours. I don’t want to say too much about Linda as it may spoil the delight and pleasure of her company so I’ll settle for saying that it’s totally fascinating viewing things through her eyes. At times it’s extremely funny, albeit darkly so, her way of speaking can be most amusing but she’s also very perceptive and clever so you try interpret the inflections and nuances to detect the truth. It’s quite an emotional rollercoaster read and frequently it’s sad as you see the impact of judgements or the past catching up with the present. All the characterisation is good such as Linda’s mother Eunice who my mother would have described as ‘quite a card’ but Linda’s characterisation is outstanding. The ending is cracking, it’s a belter and an absolute doozy of jaw dropper which I couldn’t help but admire!
Overall, what a terrific read. It’s such a well written character driven book that has all the ingredients I like in a well executed novel.
With thanks to Netgalley and especially to HarperCollins, HarperFiction, The Borough Press for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review
July 30, 2022
2.5
You can call me a jerk, but I’ve about had it with quirk.
Maybe at another time, I would have appreciated this story. It’s told first person by a housewife named Linda who lives a simple life, works part-time in a thrift store, and dreams of leading a more glamorous existence. She is weird (i.e., quirky—oh god, I’m starting to hate that word!). She has a distant husband and no real friends. She develops a weird relationship with an odd couple. She’s out there. Serial killings are happening in the background and people in the small town are gossiping.
So we’re in Linda’s head the whole time. She has funny thoughts, and they are entertaining—some of the time. The problem is, I got claustrophobic as hell. Let me out of this strange, passive woman’s head, please! I need a breather. I need someone else’s perspective, I need interaction, I need dialogue, a change of scenery.
The reason I was so impatient is that I read two other books this year that were about a quirky, loner woman—The Maid and One's Company—and I didn’t like either of them. Both of those stories were told in first person, too. First person and quirk used to be my friends, but we’ve definitely broken up.
Joy Jar
-The observations about life are clever and entertaining, and I did some highlighting.
Here are a few fun sentences:
“You can’t take a pair of scissors to one thing and leave the rest undamaged.”
“Nothing dilutes your own unhappiness like feeding on the unhappiness of others.”
“Mother was the kind of person who had far more coasters than people she knew.”
“The sound of nothing ends up being the most distracting thing of all.”
“…there are times when you don’t even realize a thought is sitting inside your head until your mouth discovers it and it’s given somewhere to go.”
Complaint Board
-Enough with the settees already! I really do like the sound of the British use of “settee’ instead of “couch” (it’s much prettier and flow-y on the tongue), but after a while, I’m telling you, settee can get old. The book and I got off on the wrong foot almost immediately, when two identical phrases are used within pages of each other—“perched on the arm of a settee.” And there was a similar phrase, “stretched my legs out on the settee,” nearby. Oh, and not much later, we hear about “people lounging around on armchairs.” (At least there was some variety; we switched from the settee to a chair!) Apparently, we needed to know that people lounged. On settees. A lot. I picture a lot of people sitting around on furniture in relaxed poses—unnecessary visuals, enough is enough. I got so mad, I did a search and found that “settee” was used 28 times! I know, I know, this is a minor offense, but it still bugged me. (And I’m sorry that I had to say the word a million times to get my point across.) There’s a time late in the story where sentences appear twice, verbatim: “…but I spotted it. I spot everything. I wasn’t born yesterday.” Where oh where was the editor? Since this book was an ARC, maybe these crimes were caught before publication. We can hope!
-Get me out of here! I’ve already said, I was so claustrophobic inside Linda’s head! It sort of felt like I was in an MRI machine. Let me out!
-Come on, open your eyes! Linda, like many other main characters with the “quirky” label (probably on the spectrum), has this annoying cluelessness despite the fact she seems astute sometimes. It prevented me from feeling anything for Linda.
-Too too. Too slow, too boring.
-A Maid twin. This story had a lot in common with The Maid. Both main characters were clean freaks who were out of it, and both stories involved crimes. And even stranger, both had mothers who had passed down trite sayings. If you liked The Maid (which I didn’t, as I said earlier), I think you’ll love this one. I liked this one a bit more than The Maid.
-The ending completely sucked! It made no sense; it didn’t seem consistent with the portrayal of Linda. I’m not sure I even understood it. Made me so mad! This secured its spot in 2-star land. (How could I round up if I hated the ending?)
I really wanted this book to be over. We get Linda’s shtick early on, and most of it seemed slow and tedious. I hate to be Negative Nancy, but I can’t help it. Most people loved this book, so be sure to read their reviews. I did appreciate the thoughtful observations—I couldn’t resist showing you a few of the many good lines. It’s totally possible that I would have liked this book more if I hadn’t run into two quirky loners-losers who I didn’t like earlier this year.
Thanks to NetGalley and Edelweiss for the advance copies.
You can call me a jerk, but I’ve about had it with quirk.
Maybe at another time, I would have appreciated this story. It’s told first person by a housewife named Linda who lives a simple life, works part-time in a thrift store, and dreams of leading a more glamorous existence. She is weird (i.e., quirky—oh god, I’m starting to hate that word!). She has a distant husband and no real friends. She develops a weird relationship with an odd couple. She’s out there. Serial killings are happening in the background and people in the small town are gossiping.
So we’re in Linda’s head the whole time. She has funny thoughts, and they are entertaining—some of the time. The problem is, I got claustrophobic as hell. Let me out of this strange, passive woman’s head, please! I need a breather. I need someone else’s perspective, I need interaction, I need dialogue, a change of scenery.
The reason I was so impatient is that I read two other books this year that were about a quirky, loner woman—The Maid and One's Company—and I didn’t like either of them. Both of those stories were told in first person, too. First person and quirk used to be my friends, but we’ve definitely broken up.
Joy Jar
-The observations about life are clever and entertaining, and I did some highlighting.
Here are a few fun sentences:
“You can’t take a pair of scissors to one thing and leave the rest undamaged.”
“Nothing dilutes your own unhappiness like feeding on the unhappiness of others.”
“Mother was the kind of person who had far more coasters than people she knew.”
“The sound of nothing ends up being the most distracting thing of all.”
“…there are times when you don’t even realize a thought is sitting inside your head until your mouth discovers it and it’s given somewhere to go.”
Complaint Board
-Enough with the settees already! I really do like the sound of the British use of “settee’ instead of “couch” (it’s much prettier and flow-y on the tongue), but after a while, I’m telling you, settee can get old. The book and I got off on the wrong foot almost immediately, when two identical phrases are used within pages of each other—“perched on the arm of a settee.” And there was a similar phrase, “stretched my legs out on the settee,” nearby. Oh, and not much later, we hear about “people lounging around on armchairs.” (At least there was some variety; we switched from the settee to a chair!) Apparently, we needed to know that people lounged. On settees. A lot. I picture a lot of people sitting around on furniture in relaxed poses—unnecessary visuals, enough is enough. I got so mad, I did a search and found that “settee” was used 28 times! I know, I know, this is a minor offense, but it still bugged me. (And I’m sorry that I had to say the word a million times to get my point across.) There’s a time late in the story where sentences appear twice, verbatim: “…but I spotted it. I spot everything. I wasn’t born yesterday.” Where oh where was the editor? Since this book was an ARC, maybe these crimes were caught before publication. We can hope!
-Get me out of here! I’ve already said, I was so claustrophobic inside Linda’s head! It sort of felt like I was in an MRI machine. Let me out!
-Come on, open your eyes! Linda, like many other main characters with the “quirky” label (probably on the spectrum), has this annoying cluelessness despite the fact she seems astute sometimes. It prevented me from feeling anything for Linda.
-Too too. Too slow, too boring.
-A Maid twin. This story had a lot in common with The Maid. Both main characters were clean freaks who were out of it, and both stories involved crimes. And even stranger, both had mothers who had passed down trite sayings. If you liked The Maid (which I didn’t, as I said earlier), I think you’ll love this one. I liked this one a bit more than The Maid.
-The ending completely sucked! It made no sense; it didn’t seem consistent with the portrayal of Linda. I’m not sure I even understood it. Made me so mad! This secured its spot in 2-star land. (How could I round up if I hated the ending?)
I really wanted this book to be over. We get Linda’s shtick early on, and most of it seemed slow and tedious. I hate to be Negative Nancy, but I can’t help it. Most people loved this book, so be sure to read their reviews. I did appreciate the thoughtful observations—I couldn’t resist showing you a few of the many good lines. It’s totally possible that I would have liked this book more if I hadn’t run into two quirky loners-losers who I didn’t like earlier this year.
Thanks to NetGalley and Edelweiss for the advance copies.
September 10, 2022
My first book by Ms Cannon. I did enjoy her quirky heroine. I suppose I enjoyed it partly thanks to the perfect job done by the reader.
August 28, 2022
All the creepy, sinister stars in the sky! 🌟”From the bestselling author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep and Three Things About Elsie, a delightfully sinister novel about a married woman living a nice, quiet suburban life—but things aren’t always what they seem…”
A Tidy Ending has a sinister tone from the very first sentence, and that drew me into the heart of the story. That tone never lets go either. Linda is married to Terry. He’s a touch annoying, mostly banal, has hoarder tendencies (in contrast to Linda’s neatness). He has the TV on alllll the time. Linda becomes more and more bored with her dull life, but these murders keep happening in her area, and they go unsolved. At the same time, she tracks down the former resident of her house and befriends her, a little too closely. The murders begin to occupy Linda and her mother’s thoughts all day long.
The chapters are mostly in the past with the murders and Linda’s preoccupation, but there also “now” chapters where Linda is in the present, foreshadowing what may have happened in the past.
Joanna Cannon is a psychiatrist, and it shows in every morsel and detail of this novel I absolutely loved analyzing. Linda is a character unlike any other. So is her mom. I think we’ve all known a Terry, or at least this book made me feel like I have. A Tidy Ending is a deep dive character study into Linda’s mind and way of life, and it’s psychologically clever, as one would expect with Cannon’s background. I may have been right about the twist, in the end, but the journey getting there was something I never could have imagined!
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
A Tidy Ending has a sinister tone from the very first sentence, and that drew me into the heart of the story. That tone never lets go either. Linda is married to Terry. He’s a touch annoying, mostly banal, has hoarder tendencies (in contrast to Linda’s neatness). He has the TV on alllll the time. Linda becomes more and more bored with her dull life, but these murders keep happening in her area, and they go unsolved. At the same time, she tracks down the former resident of her house and befriends her, a little too closely. The murders begin to occupy Linda and her mother’s thoughts all day long.
The chapters are mostly in the past with the murders and Linda’s preoccupation, but there also “now” chapters where Linda is in the present, foreshadowing what may have happened in the past.
Joanna Cannon is a psychiatrist, and it shows in every morsel and detail of this novel I absolutely loved analyzing. Linda is a character unlike any other. So is her mom. I think we’ve all known a Terry, or at least this book made me feel like I have. A Tidy Ending is a deep dive character study into Linda’s mind and way of life, and it’s psychologically clever, as one would expect with Cannon’s background. I may have been right about the twist, in the end, but the journey getting there was something I never could have imagined!
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
August 13, 2022
Adapted from a short story and inspired by the voice of audiobook reader Lissa Berry, A Tidy Ending is a character driven cozy mystery with an edge that will have you questioning everything.
Linda Hammet keeps to herself. She leads a very simple, monotonous life, cooking and cleaning for her very dirty husband, Terry. Working in a charity shop and visiting with her overly critical and passive aggressive mother also occupy her time.
Behold! A serial killer is on the loose and murdering women in their neighborhood!
After The Hammets move houses, Linda becomes fixated on the previous tennant, Rebecca Finch, after receiving her mail. Rebecca’s fashion magazines lead Linda to believe that she lives a more glamorous life than she does. Intent on befriending Rebecca, Linda cyber stalks and ingratiates herself into her life.
However, Rebecca is not exactly how Linda imagined she would be.
And…Rebecca has other plans for Linda.
Then, the police begin to investigate Terry, suspecting that he is behind the murders.
Who is the real serial killer?
A Tidy Ending is the first book that I have read by Joanna Cannon and I really enjoyed it. I listened to the audiobook read by Lissa Berry and her narration is superb. I highly recommend listening to this book. It also includes an interview with the author at the end, moderated by Berry.
Joanna Cannon reveals in the interview that she always leaves Easter eggs in her books, connecting them together. Now I need to read her backlist!
If you enjoyed Molly from The Maid by Nita Prose, you will love Linda. The two books have a similar premise and vibe. While this plot is slow to unfold, the twists at the end are fantastic. It will not end the way you think it will.
Linda is a very complex character who will not easily be forgotten!
I am looking forward to reading more books by Joanna Cannon and am so glad I took a chance on this one.
4/5 stars
Linda Hammet keeps to herself. She leads a very simple, monotonous life, cooking and cleaning for her very dirty husband, Terry. Working in a charity shop and visiting with her overly critical and passive aggressive mother also occupy her time.
Behold! A serial killer is on the loose and murdering women in their neighborhood!
After The Hammets move houses, Linda becomes fixated on the previous tennant, Rebecca Finch, after receiving her mail. Rebecca’s fashion magazines lead Linda to believe that she lives a more glamorous life than she does. Intent on befriending Rebecca, Linda cyber stalks and ingratiates herself into her life.
However, Rebecca is not exactly how Linda imagined she would be.
And…Rebecca has other plans for Linda.
Then, the police begin to investigate Terry, suspecting that he is behind the murders.
Who is the real serial killer?
A Tidy Ending is the first book that I have read by Joanna Cannon and I really enjoyed it. I listened to the audiobook read by Lissa Berry and her narration is superb. I highly recommend listening to this book. It also includes an interview with the author at the end, moderated by Berry.
Joanna Cannon reveals in the interview that she always leaves Easter eggs in her books, connecting them together. Now I need to read her backlist!
If you enjoyed Molly from The Maid by Nita Prose, you will love Linda. The two books have a similar premise and vibe. While this plot is slow to unfold, the twists at the end are fantastic. It will not end the way you think it will.
Linda is a very complex character who will not easily be forgotten!
I am looking forward to reading more books by Joanna Cannon and am so glad I took a chance on this one.
4/5 stars
August 2, 2022
A story filled with wonderfully unconventional characters who seem to fit a bit outside of the box, but live a quiet and relatively conventional life in a relatively small and quiet suburban community - until news breaks about what they will soon come to believe is a serial killer.
Before you decide that this one is not for you, this is not a thriller, or not what I’d consider a thriller. There’s no gratuitous violence described in gory detail, just an ongoing story that mainly surrounds a couple dealing with the daily news as time goes by. A husband, Terry, who works, a wife, Linda, who minds the house and has a part-time job working in a charity shop. They moved into their house somewhat recently, not all that far from their former house, and continue to receive mail for the former resident whose taste was apparently richer than theirs.
Linda and her mother, Eunice, left Wales to avoid just this sort of thing. When the body count rises to three, Linda begins to pay more attention to the changes in her husband’s schedule, and the new variations in his work. Linda pays attention to even the seemingly insignificant details. She would bring it to the attention of the police, but knows they’d never listen anyway.
There’s a quirky element of this that reminded me a little of Nita Prose’s ’Molly’ in ’The Maid’, although story-wise this is very different in very many ways. But Linda’s unconventional ways, her views on life and friendship, and the childhood trauma that haunts her has left her a little awkward with people, which also means they tend to either dismiss her or take advantage of her.
This deliciously dark-ish, quirky story brilliantly comes together in a way that I never saw coming.
Published: 02 Aug 2022
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Scribner
June 5, 2023
2.5 stars
I thought I was going to enjoy this book as it sounded Kaye’s back but by page 60 I had enough a murder missing girls and the prime suspect is Terry who is married to Linda who hates her life, you see Terry always belittles her but she puts up with it why 🤦♂️I could not stand reading about Linda what a complainer she had her nose in the former owner Rebecca Finch life. she need to know more.
For these reasons it spoilt it for me this has got five star ⭐️ reviews but I thought 💭 for me it just grated on my nerves.
I thought I was going to enjoy this book as it sounded Kaye’s back but by page 60 I had enough a murder missing girls and the prime suspect is Terry who is married to Linda who hates her life, you see Terry always belittles her but she puts up with it why 🤦♂️I could not stand reading about Linda what a complainer she had her nose in the former owner Rebecca Finch life. she need to know more.
For these reasons it spoilt it for me this has got five star ⭐️ reviews but I thought 💭 for me it just grated on my nerves.
March 29, 2022
Linda and her husband Terry live in an ordinary neighbourhood, they’re just an average couple. Then women start being murdered nearby…
The whole story is narrated by Linda. She works at a charity shop, doesn’t really have friends (she’s a shy, awkward sort of person who is often overlooked) and likes cleaning and Jaffa cakes. From the start I wondered if she was a reliable narrator but she’s entirely convincing. There’s a dark story concerning her father in her childhood, this is slowly revealed.
I enjoyed this from start to finish, particularly the satisfying last few chapters, it’s very well done. I liked Linda’s idiosyncratic voice and her observations. The writing is clever with some dark humour and believable characters. An excellent read.
The whole story is narrated by Linda. She works at a charity shop, doesn’t really have friends (she’s a shy, awkward sort of person who is often overlooked) and likes cleaning and Jaffa cakes. From the start I wondered if she was a reliable narrator but she’s entirely convincing. There’s a dark story concerning her father in her childhood, this is slowly revealed.
I enjoyed this from start to finish, particularly the satisfying last few chapters, it’s very well done. I liked Linda’s idiosyncratic voice and her observations. The writing is clever with some dark humour and believable characters. An excellent read.
March 27, 2023
3★
“ ‘What’s this, Linda?’ She picked it up because quite by accident I’d left it right in the middle of the chair where she always sits.”
Linda works in a charity shop, and she has just left a catalogue of pricey furniture where her co-worker Tamsin can’t miss it. She tells Tamsin they’re redecorating their house (a lie), and also that she’s looking for something nice to wear to meet her best friend (a lie). You get the idea.
The catalogue was addressed to Rebecca Finch at the house she and husband Terry recently bought in a housing estate and moved into. There is nothing stylish about them or their home.
Linda’s job is to sort through all the donated handbags and clean out the sticky debris of daily living that accumulates in the little pockets and corners. This takes place in the stockroom.
“I usually hated being stuck in the stockroom all day by myself, but it kept me away from conversation and theories and hearsay, because you can only take so much before your ears feel too full. Plus, it meant I could open a new packet of Jaffa Cakes and put my music on very quietly without Tamsin giving me one of her looks.”
Today the conversations playing over and over with customers are about the recent murder victim found nearby. Her handbag is missing, so the police have been to the charity shop to ask them to keep a special eye out for it and be extra careful themselves. Linda says she wonders what they used to talk about.
She and Terry have watched the news, seen the press conference about the killing. They are an odd pair, as he is a slob who seems to live to drink beer and litter while Linda lives to daydream and clean. She scrubs everything and begrudges every spot or stain. She has plans.
She noticed something at the press conference, when they put up a picture of the victim, but Terry had already said the police hadn’t got a clue and switched the channel.
“Obviously, I would never go to the police about what I saw at the press conference. I’m no fool.
In the past, each time I’ve been—and I haven’t been that often, I don’t care what they say—they’ve just fobbed me off with one of those volunteer officers and a paper cup filled with lukewarm tea.
‘The thing is, Linda,’ that’s how they always start. As though I have to have the thing pointed out to me by someone else, because I’m too stupid to recognize it on my own. It was the same when I reported the suspicious man in Boots, and when I asked them to check on a strange car parked up on the high street.”
She goes on about the number of reports she’s made, and we get a good picture of her as the neighbourhood busybody. Her mother is another real piece of work, a controlling woman who moved Linda to Wales after some family event in their past, something to do with her father, which is revealed only slowly.
“Mother isn’t someone I would generally confide in, because I know, even years later, my confession will come back to visit me. She stores everything, does my mother, in the neat little drawers of her mind. She can cross-reference it all, if the need arises. Every comment. Every opinion. Ticked off and recorded, and safely delivered into a future argument.”
As she opens more of Rebecca Finch’s mail, she seems to become fixated on her to the point of stalking. The story gets more complicated and far-fetched. By the end, I didn’t care what happened to anyone, I just wanted to know what the point was.
The ending was a clever switch if you suspend – and I mean really suspend – disbelief. It was too much of a stretch for my suspenders, I’m afraid, and I didn’t buy it, not with these characters. With some modification to the characters, it could be a great idea.
Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the review copy from which I’ve quoted, so quotes may have changed.
“ ‘What’s this, Linda?’ She picked it up because quite by accident I’d left it right in the middle of the chair where she always sits.”
Linda works in a charity shop, and she has just left a catalogue of pricey furniture where her co-worker Tamsin can’t miss it. She tells Tamsin they’re redecorating their house (a lie), and also that she’s looking for something nice to wear to meet her best friend (a lie). You get the idea.
The catalogue was addressed to Rebecca Finch at the house she and husband Terry recently bought in a housing estate and moved into. There is nothing stylish about them or their home.
Linda’s job is to sort through all the donated handbags and clean out the sticky debris of daily living that accumulates in the little pockets and corners. This takes place in the stockroom.
“I usually hated being stuck in the stockroom all day by myself, but it kept me away from conversation and theories and hearsay, because you can only take so much before your ears feel too full. Plus, it meant I could open a new packet of Jaffa Cakes and put my music on very quietly without Tamsin giving me one of her looks.”
Today the conversations playing over and over with customers are about the recent murder victim found nearby. Her handbag is missing, so the police have been to the charity shop to ask them to keep a special eye out for it and be extra careful themselves. Linda says she wonders what they used to talk about.
She and Terry have watched the news, seen the press conference about the killing. They are an odd pair, as he is a slob who seems to live to drink beer and litter while Linda lives to daydream and clean. She scrubs everything and begrudges every spot or stain. She has plans.
She noticed something at the press conference, when they put up a picture of the victim, but Terry had already said the police hadn’t got a clue and switched the channel.
“Obviously, I would never go to the police about what I saw at the press conference. I’m no fool.
In the past, each time I’ve been—and I haven’t been that often, I don’t care what they say—they’ve just fobbed me off with one of those volunteer officers and a paper cup filled with lukewarm tea.
‘The thing is, Linda,’ that’s how they always start. As though I have to have the thing pointed out to me by someone else, because I’m too stupid to recognize it on my own. It was the same when I reported the suspicious man in Boots, and when I asked them to check on a strange car parked up on the high street.”
She goes on about the number of reports she’s made, and we get a good picture of her as the neighbourhood busybody. Her mother is another real piece of work, a controlling woman who moved Linda to Wales after some family event in their past, something to do with her father, which is revealed only slowly.
“Mother isn’t someone I would generally confide in, because I know, even years later, my confession will come back to visit me. She stores everything, does my mother, in the neat little drawers of her mind. She can cross-reference it all, if the need arises. Every comment. Every opinion. Ticked off and recorded, and safely delivered into a future argument.”
As she opens more of Rebecca Finch’s mail, she seems to become fixated on her to the point of stalking. The story gets more complicated and far-fetched. By the end, I didn’t care what happened to anyone, I just wanted to know what the point was.
The ending was a clever switch if you suspend – and I mean really suspend – disbelief. It was too much of a stretch for my suspenders, I’m afraid, and I didn’t buy it, not with these characters. With some modification to the characters, it could be a great idea.
Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the review copy from which I’ve quoted, so quotes may have changed.
December 13, 2022
These are the books that drive you nuts! This was good on audio, as the awful, insipid, and completely unlikable characters were bought to life and were in my face, even more so! The audio version had a quick interview as a bonus at the end, which was interesting. Another trivial matter for me, on this one, was having read an article on The Guardian, about this author some time back, about her career change from doctor to writer. An interesting woman.
Linda was the type of woman who I just wanted to wring her neck. She was so socially awkward, but more than this, she was just plain awful! The poor woman had no hope given her equally as awful mother, who’s greatest ambition in life was to sit by and watch things play out outside of her window; gossip was what fuelled her.
Linda has no hope really given a mother like this, and a lot of the story is her bouncing off of herself about ‘what mother would approve’ of. Linda is friendless, she will hold onto any shred or crumb of companionship, which all ends up being fantasy.
I'd never really needed a hiding place before, because my life has never had anything in it worth hiding.
When I was little I caught chicken pox, it was all mothers engineering. She sent me to play next door with a little boy who was covered in it hoping I'd get covered in it too and it worked. A couple of weeks later, they began to appear, furious little spots all over my body red and unhappy, demanding to be scratched. Mother was delighted. I was too once I realised it meant I'd have to stay off school. For once I had something to show for myself.
Her husband is awful, they have no life, no friends, no conversation. There was a scene in the pub where she asks him a question and he seems to wonder if she’s even talking to him. ‘Who me?’
She must find common ground with people, and this is through things like the television show Coronation Street and will use these talking points as the basis for her answers to police, as to what she was doing and when. She has no breadth of experience, and almost everything she utters is cringeworthy.
The mystery is a serial killer, the twist is good, but the characters are so so awful! Linda goes from a then and now perspective, and this unfolds very well. The voice of Linda is read well in audio, with the undertones of her character giving the reader an impression which may very well cloud their impression of her character in a strong way. Whether this is a good or bad thing I’m not sure, as this book did have me quite up and down, going from 4 stars to 3. I think the insipidness of the characters did it for me; the only shining star was Linda’s charity shop colleague. It was almost surprising that she was able to work at all!
Linda was the type of woman who I just wanted to wring her neck. She was so socially awkward, but more than this, she was just plain awful! The poor woman had no hope given her equally as awful mother, who’s greatest ambition in life was to sit by and watch things play out outside of her window; gossip was what fuelled her.
Linda has no hope really given a mother like this, and a lot of the story is her bouncing off of herself about ‘what mother would approve’ of. Linda is friendless, she will hold onto any shred or crumb of companionship, which all ends up being fantasy.
I'd never really needed a hiding place before, because my life has never had anything in it worth hiding.
When I was little I caught chicken pox, it was all mothers engineering. She sent me to play next door with a little boy who was covered in it hoping I'd get covered in it too and it worked. A couple of weeks later, they began to appear, furious little spots all over my body red and unhappy, demanding to be scratched. Mother was delighted. I was too once I realised it meant I'd have to stay off school. For once I had something to show for myself.
Her husband is awful, they have no life, no friends, no conversation. There was a scene in the pub where she asks him a question and he seems to wonder if she’s even talking to him. ‘Who me?’
She must find common ground with people, and this is through things like the television show Coronation Street and will use these talking points as the basis for her answers to police, as to what she was doing and when. She has no breadth of experience, and almost everything she utters is cringeworthy.
The mystery is a serial killer, the twist is good, but the characters are so so awful! Linda goes from a then and now perspective, and this unfolds very well. The voice of Linda is read well in audio, with the undertones of her character giving the reader an impression which may very well cloud their impression of her character in a strong way. Whether this is a good or bad thing I’m not sure, as this book did have me quite up and down, going from 4 stars to 3. I think the insipidness of the characters did it for me; the only shining star was Linda’s charity shop colleague. It was almost surprising that she was able to work at all!
August 18, 2022
3 Stars
April 29, 2022
Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins UK Audio for this audiobook ARC.
Lynda is a very observant and peculiar person, she has certain standards and always displays the perfect mannerisms around people. When women are being murdered the town goes into uproar. People start receiving letters that they are next, until Rebecca, the previous tenant in Lynda's house, receives one as well Lynda has to find her and warn her. She develops a bit of an obsession with her.
This book reads/listens very smoothly, the writer kept you engaged and gave you all the insights needed to follow the story. The narration was really great.
Although not my absolute favorite, still a very likeable story!
Lynda is a very observant and peculiar person, she has certain standards and always displays the perfect mannerisms around people. When women are being murdered the town goes into uproar. People start receiving letters that they are next, until Rebecca, the previous tenant in Lynda's house, receives one as well Lynda has to find her and warn her. She develops a bit of an obsession with her.
This book reads/listens very smoothly, the writer kept you engaged and gave you all the insights needed to follow the story. The narration was really great.
Although not my absolute favorite, still a very likeable story!
September 26, 2022
5*
Re-read via audiobook 23/9/22.
A Tidy Ending is a delectable, engrossing and darkly humorous tale, featuring as its unlikely heroine the middle-aged and deceptively introverted Linda.
Charity shop worker Linda becomes obsessed with the glamorous previous occupant of the suburban home into which she and her husband Terry have recently moved. Under-stimulated by her humdrum life, and the frequent target of ridicule and gaslighting from both her husband and mother, Linda finds a private delight in poring over fashion and lifestyle catalogues that arrive in the mail for the mysterious Rebecca, meanwhile fantasising about a more exciting existence of her own.
Meanwhile, Terry's behaviour is becoming increasingly erratic, and a series of vicious attacks on young women are keeping the town in a state of ghoulish agitation...
Joanna Cannon weaves together a self-actualisation storyline featuring an endearingly quirky protagonist, with lashings of dark humour, revenge and jaw-dropping twists. This was an absolute delight to read and Lissa Berry's narration of the audiobook version added wonderfully to the immersive experience - a perfect casting decision!
I'd thoroughly recommend A Tidy Ending to any reader who enjoys a sprinkling of dark humour in their crime-mystery-thriller reads, and equally to those who love "the mouse that roared" type plots.
My thanks to the author, Joanna Cannon, voice artist Lissa Berry, publisher HarperCollins UK Audio and NetGalley (UK) for the opportunity to listen to and review this wonderful title.
Re-read via audiobook 23/9/22.
A Tidy Ending is a delectable, engrossing and darkly humorous tale, featuring as its unlikely heroine the middle-aged and deceptively introverted Linda.
Charity shop worker Linda becomes obsessed with the glamorous previous occupant of the suburban home into which she and her husband Terry have recently moved. Under-stimulated by her humdrum life, and the frequent target of ridicule and gaslighting from both her husband and mother, Linda finds a private delight in poring over fashion and lifestyle catalogues that arrive in the mail for the mysterious Rebecca, meanwhile fantasising about a more exciting existence of her own.
Meanwhile, Terry's behaviour is becoming increasingly erratic, and a series of vicious attacks on young women are keeping the town in a state of ghoulish agitation...
Joanna Cannon weaves together a self-actualisation storyline featuring an endearingly quirky protagonist, with lashings of dark humour, revenge and jaw-dropping twists. This was an absolute delight to read and Lissa Berry's narration of the audiobook version added wonderfully to the immersive experience - a perfect casting decision!
I'd thoroughly recommend A Tidy Ending to any reader who enjoys a sprinkling of dark humour in their crime-mystery-thriller reads, and equally to those who love "the mouse that roared" type plots.
My thanks to the author, Joanna Cannon, voice artist Lissa Berry, publisher HarperCollins UK Audio and NetGalley (UK) for the opportunity to listen to and review this wonderful title.
October 29, 2021
This is the third book I have read by this author and have really enjoyed all of them. The other two books ‘The Trouble With Goats and Sheep’ and ‘Three Things about Elsie’ were great reads and this one was another one at the same level. Well written novel with excellent characters and a really entertaining read.
The story centre around Linda who is living a very normal life with her husband Terry, that is until young women start to go missing in the neighbourhood.
This is a difficult book to try and write a synopsis and whatever I say just doesn’t seem to do it justice. I loved it from start to finish and would highly recommend it to other readers. So cleverly written and so worth reading.
I would like to thank both Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
The story centre around Linda who is living a very normal life with her husband Terry, that is until young women start to go missing in the neighbourhood.
This is a difficult book to try and write a synopsis and whatever I say just doesn’t seem to do it justice. I loved it from start to finish and would highly recommend it to other readers. So cleverly written and so worth reading.
I would like to thank both Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
June 2, 2022
A struggle to finish this one I'm afraid. Linda is a middle aged woman in an unhappy marriage, with an unhappy past who also has a dysfunctional relationship with her mother, when young local women start being found murdered she becomes very interested indeed. Linda is an unusual character, she's very naive, socially awkward, doesn't understand sarcasm or social cues and seems as if she's somewhere on the autism spectrum. However, her dry observations of her neighbours and insights into their motivations are very accurate, and this contradicted her otherwise complete lack of social awareness. I couldn't really get on board with this, it moved slowly and I began to find Linda tiresome, mainly because of the contradictions in her character. I can't work out if her unreliable narration was deliberate or not, either way it didn't work for me, and the ending made me feel tricked, but not in a good way. Lots of other readers loved this, but for me, 2.5 stars rounded down.
June 7, 2022
A Tidy Ending has an untidy ending, better said a loose ending.
What impressed me early on was the voice, which was extraordinary, in the literary and the literal sense. The audiobook was narrated by Lissa Berry whose brilliant reading adds a lot of value to this novel.
Early into this audiobook, I realised it was a thriller/suspense novel and was considering whether to finish it, as I want to take a break from the genre. The well-realised character and the captivating narration kept me listening.
The main character and narrator of this novel is Linda, a forty-something-year-old Welsh woman, part-time charity shop assistant. She lives in an estate house with her factory worker husband, Terry. I loved her musings and observations on people in general, her husband in special. It's interesting how much we're all different, yet so similar in many ways.
Linda is a loner, who's suffered some trauma earlier in life. She's both astute and naive.
I'm the type of reader who's more interested in character development and the little things, I don't care as much about the plot.
This novel checked all those boxes and even the plot was original and not too far fetched.
What impressed me early on was the voice, which was extraordinary, in the literary and the literal sense. The audiobook was narrated by Lissa Berry whose brilliant reading adds a lot of value to this novel.
Early into this audiobook, I realised it was a thriller/suspense novel and was considering whether to finish it, as I want to take a break from the genre. The well-realised character and the captivating narration kept me listening.
The main character and narrator of this novel is Linda, a forty-something-year-old Welsh woman, part-time charity shop assistant. She lives in an estate house with her factory worker husband, Terry. I loved her musings and observations on people in general, her husband in special. It's interesting how much we're all different, yet so similar in many ways.
Linda is a loner, who's suffered some trauma earlier in life. She's both astute and naive.
I'm the type of reader who's more interested in character development and the little things, I don't care as much about the plot.
This novel checked all those boxes and even the plot was original and not too far fetched.
April 15, 2022
4.5 stars rounded up
Linda has lived in a quiet neighbourhood since fleeing the dark events of her childhood in Wales. Now she sits in her kitchen, wondering if this is all there is: pushing the vacuum around and cooking fish sticks for dinner, a far cry from the glamourous lifestyle magazines coming through the mail slot addressed to the previous occupant, Rebecca. Linda's husband Terry isn't perfect - he picks his teeth, tracks dirt through the house, and spends most of his time in front of the tv. But that seems fairly standard - until he starts keeping odd hours at work, at around the same time young women in the town start to go missing.
This is a cleverly crafted story. Linda's life is slowly falling apart. She is obsessed with the magazines that are still being delivered for the previous occupant, Rebecca. There's also the mystery of the disappearing women. We get chapters where Linda is in an establishment that has an eerie feel to it. Linda is an unreliable narrator. The chapters are told in the then and now format which only makes the story more intriguing. A character driven story that has murders as a backdrop. I was shocked by the ending. This is my first read by the author but it won't be my last. I would like to thank #NetGalley #HarperCollinsUK #HarperFiction and the author #JoannaCannon for my ARC of #ATidyEnding in exchange for an honest review.
Linda has lived in a quiet neighbourhood since fleeing the dark events of her childhood in Wales. Now she sits in her kitchen, wondering if this is all there is: pushing the vacuum around and cooking fish sticks for dinner, a far cry from the glamourous lifestyle magazines coming through the mail slot addressed to the previous occupant, Rebecca. Linda's husband Terry isn't perfect - he picks his teeth, tracks dirt through the house, and spends most of his time in front of the tv. But that seems fairly standard - until he starts keeping odd hours at work, at around the same time young women in the town start to go missing.
This is a cleverly crafted story. Linda's life is slowly falling apart. She is obsessed with the magazines that are still being delivered for the previous occupant, Rebecca. There's also the mystery of the disappearing women. We get chapters where Linda is in an establishment that has an eerie feel to it. Linda is an unreliable narrator. The chapters are told in the then and now format which only makes the story more intriguing. A character driven story that has murders as a backdrop. I was shocked by the ending. This is my first read by the author but it won't be my last. I would like to thank #NetGalley #HarperCollinsUK #HarperFiction and the author #JoannaCannon for my ARC of #ATidyEnding in exchange for an honest review.
July 31, 2022
Last year, a breakout debut novel hit the scene, and everyone fell in love with the character Molly in Nita Prose’s “The Maid”. An excerpt from my review of that book explains who Molly Gray reminded me of…
“I absolutely loved the character of Molly Gray. There was once an episode of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ where Katy Perry guest-starred as someone they simply called “Honey” because she was so clueless. When she tells you about getting an email from a REAL Nigerian prince or how her landlord was so concerned about her safety that he installed a security camera in her shower, all you can do is shake your head and say “Oh, Honey…”. That’s what Molly reminded me of at many points in the book.”
This main character, Linda, reminds me a lot of Molly. It’s not said outright in either book, but both women seem to be on the autism spectrum, and both are meticulous about cleaning. Both completely misunderstand other peoples’ intentions, both are kind of clueless as to how others live their lives, and both are totally unaware of social cues.
The only reason I’m not giving this book five stars is because number one, I feel like I just read another book about Molly, and number two, Linda is a really exaggerated character. When “The Maid” came out, Molly was so endearing. When I read “Tidy Endings”, I became annoyed with Linda because nobody is THAT clueless, not even Molly. It feels like Linda is Molly on overdrive, and it really wasn’t necessary.
Other than that, I thought this was a fantastic book. It started slightly slow, but then quickly picked up and started giving “Single White Female” vibes. Linda is married to a boring slob, and her mother still helps run her life. When mail starts coming for a woman named Rebecca, Linda falls into a dream world where instead of being a woman who works at a thrift store, she lives a glamorous life like Rebecca must live, based on all the fancy catalogs received in her name.
Linda’s town is being terrorized by a serial killer; everyone is on edge and glued to the news of each new murder. Soon, she begins escaping into different worlds to avoid the anxiety, and starts making “friends” who don’t truly have her best interests at heart. The book goes back in time to the past, with the serial killer, and with Linda having a hard time fitting in with the world. The remainder of the book is written in the “now”, when someone is writing from a mental institution. I liked the two different timelines, especially at the end.
The ending raised this from a solid four stars, to a rounded-down 4.5 stars. I really enjoyed it, and didn’t see all of it coming. I really enjoyed everything in this book, except how exaggerated the main character’s cluelessness was. That and so many similarities to “The Maid” stopped this from being a five star book, but it was still an excellent story.
(Thank you to Scribner Books, Joanna Cannon, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)
“I absolutely loved the character of Molly Gray. There was once an episode of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ where Katy Perry guest-starred as someone they simply called “Honey” because she was so clueless. When she tells you about getting an email from a REAL Nigerian prince or how her landlord was so concerned about her safety that he installed a security camera in her shower, all you can do is shake your head and say “Oh, Honey…”. That’s what Molly reminded me of at many points in the book.”
This main character, Linda, reminds me a lot of Molly. It’s not said outright in either book, but both women seem to be on the autism spectrum, and both are meticulous about cleaning. Both completely misunderstand other peoples’ intentions, both are kind of clueless as to how others live their lives, and both are totally unaware of social cues.
The only reason I’m not giving this book five stars is because number one, I feel like I just read another book about Molly, and number two, Linda is a really exaggerated character. When “The Maid” came out, Molly was so endearing. When I read “Tidy Endings”, I became annoyed with Linda because nobody is THAT clueless, not even Molly. It feels like Linda is Molly on overdrive, and it really wasn’t necessary.
Other than that, I thought this was a fantastic book. It started slightly slow, but then quickly picked up and started giving “Single White Female” vibes. Linda is married to a boring slob, and her mother still helps run her life. When mail starts coming for a woman named Rebecca, Linda falls into a dream world where instead of being a woman who works at a thrift store, she lives a glamorous life like Rebecca must live, based on all the fancy catalogs received in her name.
Linda’s town is being terrorized by a serial killer; everyone is on edge and glued to the news of each new murder. Soon, she begins escaping into different worlds to avoid the anxiety, and starts making “friends” who don’t truly have her best interests at heart. The book goes back in time to the past, with the serial killer, and with Linda having a hard time fitting in with the world. The remainder of the book is written in the “now”, when someone is writing from a mental institution. I liked the two different timelines, especially at the end.
The ending raised this from a solid four stars, to a rounded-down 4.5 stars. I really enjoyed it, and didn’t see all of it coming. I really enjoyed everything in this book, except how exaggerated the main character’s cluelessness was. That and so many similarities to “The Maid” stopped this from being a five star book, but it was still an excellent story.
(Thank you to Scribner Books, Joanna Cannon, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)
June 5, 2023
Two and a half stars.
Linda and her mother moved from Wales when Linda was a child, hoping to leave the shame and scandal of Linda’s father behind. Linda is married to Terry who sends most of his time in front of the TV. Linda works part time at a charity shop. Lately all anyone can talk about are the young women who have gone missing and ended up murdered. How could such a thing happen in their neighbourhood? And how long will people live in fear? Linda, is involved in her own quest to track down Rebecca, who lived in the house before Linda and Terry bought it. What will it mean if she does? Could lives be changed?
I have loved the other two books I have read by this author, and so came to this one with high expectations. But this one took me a couple of tries to get into. I never gelled with Linda. Maybe it was because she seemed a bit similar to the autistic main character of another book which I loved but this was not as well done? Maybe it was just Linda being awkward? Maybe because the longer it went on the more far fetched the story became? Or maybe it was the high expectations going into it? For whatever reason I found it hard to maintain interest at times. None of the characters were likeable and while some of Linda’s thought processes were amusing, the story dragged.
As for the tidy ending? Didn’t work at all for this reader. Suspension of disbelief had snapped before I reached the end. That ending just pulled the rating down further. There are going to be people who love it, but this reader was disappointed. Just a okay read for me.
Linda and her mother moved from Wales when Linda was a child, hoping to leave the shame and scandal of Linda’s father behind. Linda is married to Terry who sends most of his time in front of the TV. Linda works part time at a charity shop. Lately all anyone can talk about are the young women who have gone missing and ended up murdered. How could such a thing happen in their neighbourhood? And how long will people live in fear? Linda, is involved in her own quest to track down Rebecca, who lived in the house before Linda and Terry bought it. What will it mean if she does? Could lives be changed?
I have loved the other two books I have read by this author, and so came to this one with high expectations. But this one took me a couple of tries to get into. I never gelled with Linda. Maybe it was because she seemed a bit similar to the autistic main character of another book which I loved but this was not as well done? Maybe it was just Linda being awkward? Maybe because the longer it went on the more far fetched the story became? Or maybe it was the high expectations going into it? For whatever reason I found it hard to maintain interest at times. None of the characters were likeable and while some of Linda’s thought processes were amusing, the story dragged.
As for the tidy ending? Didn’t work at all for this reader. Suspension of disbelief had snapped before I reached the end. That ending just pulled the rating down further. There are going to be people who love it, but this reader was disappointed. Just a okay read for me.
May 21, 2022
Not much to say except "chapeau".
July 24, 2024
3.5 stars
I have to hand it to Ms. Cannon, she kept me off kilter for all but the last few pages, when everything clicked into place. I kept reading, wondering what is wrong with Linda? She obviously doesn't understand people—is she autistic? What about her germ phobia? I spent a fair amount of time also considering what happened when she was a child in Wales. That at least became clearer as the novel progressed.
Was her mother actually as awful as Linda leads us to believe? Maybe she's trying to support a child with emotional problems and is being misinterpreted by that child. How in heck did Linda end up married to Terry? I had so many, many questions. Linda seems far too trusting and I cringed as I see dishonest people trying to take advantage of her. But Linda has a secret power: she has carefully observed other people all her life and she sees the details. She sees past the surface despite having difficulty determining the motives of salespeople.
I wasn't sure what I thought of the novel right until page 382. Those last two chapters blew me away! I can't give any details, much as I would like to, or I would be spoiling things for other readers. Give Linda a chance. She will frustrate and amaze you.
I have to hand it to Ms. Cannon, she kept me off kilter for all but the last few pages, when everything clicked into place. I kept reading, wondering what is wrong with Linda? She obviously doesn't understand people—is she autistic? What about her germ phobia? I spent a fair amount of time also considering what happened when she was a child in Wales. That at least became clearer as the novel progressed.
Was her mother actually as awful as Linda leads us to believe? Maybe she's trying to support a child with emotional problems and is being misinterpreted by that child. How in heck did Linda end up married to Terry? I had so many, many questions. Linda seems far too trusting and I cringed as I see dishonest people trying to take advantage of her. But Linda has a secret power: she has carefully observed other people all her life and she sees the details. She sees past the surface despite having difficulty determining the motives of salespeople.
I wasn't sure what I thought of the novel right until page 382. Those last two chapters blew me away! I can't give any details, much as I would like to, or I would be spoiling things for other readers. Give Linda a chance. She will frustrate and amaze you.
July 12, 2022
A couple of things to remember:
Revenge is a dish best served cold, and: it’s always the quiet ones.
Linda lives a small suburban life to a husband she barely tolerates and a routine that she lives her life around. Then, a glimpse into a new, beautiful life through a magazine addressed to the previous occupant of the house, and things start to change. The backdrop of murders of young women in the village has everyone on alert, but also really keen to know all the details and speculate who’s responsible.
Linda watches everything and says very little - she has few friends, and as the book goes further in, she’s either very sheltered, or on a spectrum - I plumped for the latter.
Then: she accelerates her lifestyle changes, and gradually the layers are peeled back - why they had to leave Wales when she was a child, her attachment/detachment to Mother, and the monochrome of her life gradually becoming coloured.
I really enjoyed this book, the writing is superb (see notes for some examples), and the author’s way with words captured me (Joanna Cannon - get OUT of my head!).
If you enjoyed the life descriptions of Eleanor Oliphant, then it’s a good bet you’ll devour this book, too.
Revenge is a dish best served cold, and: it’s always the quiet ones.
Linda lives a small suburban life to a husband she barely tolerates and a routine that she lives her life around. Then, a glimpse into a new, beautiful life through a magazine addressed to the previous occupant of the house, and things start to change. The backdrop of murders of young women in the village has everyone on alert, but also really keen to know all the details and speculate who’s responsible.
Linda watches everything and says very little - she has few friends, and as the book goes further in, she’s either very sheltered, or on a spectrum - I plumped for the latter.
Then: she accelerates her lifestyle changes, and gradually the layers are peeled back - why they had to leave Wales when she was a child, her attachment/detachment to Mother, and the monochrome of her life gradually becoming coloured.
I really enjoyed this book, the writing is superb (see notes for some examples), and the author’s way with words captured me (Joanna Cannon - get OUT of my head!).
If you enjoyed the life descriptions of Eleanor Oliphant, then it’s a good bet you’ll devour this book, too.
May 9, 2022
“…we might not see the world how it really is. We might be mistaken about things and we need someone to help us who can see it all more clearly.’
‘But how do you know?’
‘Know what, Linda?’
‘Who are the people who are seeing the world how it really is and who are the people that are mistaken? How do you know which way around it is?’”
A Tidy Ending is the third novel by best-selling British psychiatrist and author, Joanna Cannon. The audio version is narrated by Lissa Berry and includes a chat with the author that reveals the genesis of the novel and also of a particular incident in the story. Linda and Terry Hammett have recently moved to Cavendish Avenue from another house on their estate: this one isn’t so different, but it’s where Linda wants to live. She is dismayed to find that her life hasn’t improved: she’s still working her part-time job at the charity shop; her opinionated mother still criticises her every move; and Terry still ignores her efforts to keep everything properly clean.
Accidentally opening a catalogue addressed to the former resident, Rebecca Finch, she’s soon convinced that if this woman were her friend, her life would be so much better: perfect, in fact. Could she track down this potential friend?
But people on the estate are becoming uneasy: a young woman’s body was found by the canal, and this is the second one in just a few weeks. By the time a third body is found, people are talking about a serial killer, anonymous threatening letters are circulating, and Linda’s mother Eunice is getting anxious: the restlessness in the neighbourhood reminds her a little too closely of the reason she and Linda left Wales thirty years earlier.
Linda prides herself on being observant, on remembering details, and she’s noticed that Terry is departing from his usual schedule, one of several things that are suddenly out of the ordinary with her husband. And she’s surprised that no one else has noticed anything about the photograph shown in the police press conference, but the police, who can’t be trusted anyway, are repeatedly dismissive of anything Linda brings to their attention.
Linda relates her story from within some sort of care facility, six weeks after everything happened, but it’s soon apparent that she’s an unreliable narrator. She presents as naïve, a bit simple, and is used to people underestimating her, doesn’t mind that, in fact. Those who are aware of her history might put it down to a traumatic childhood experience…
From keenly observed human traits and behaviours, Cannon crafts characters familiar to us all from everyday life: the gossipy, hygiene-obsessed mother, the ever-vigilant, self-appointed street monitor, and the lazy, unappreciative husband, among others.
Linda’s inner monologue is filled with insightful observations: “There are certain people who make you start to worry when they say there’s nothing to worry about. Doctors, for example, and often accountants. But especially police officers. When a police officer tells you there’s nothing to worry about, you know it’s time to be concerned” and “Because when something extraordinary happens, if you concentrate on the ordinary things instead, it stops you from having to look at it all too closely.”
Cannon has a talent for descriptive prose: “Mother has always been very good at spotting untruths and scooping them out of their shells, like whelks. Even when I disguised a lie in a wide avenue of truth, she could still manage to find it, because all she had to do was stare at me for long enough and out it would pop and wave at her” and “My mother is a surrogate for other people’s lives, stacking the empty shelves of her mind with nonsense” and “She said it kindly. Not like most people. Not like Mother’s words with their serrated edges.”
This is a story so cleverly constructed that even the most astute reader is unlikely to see the full picture before the jaw-dropping reveal. With red herrings, twists and distractions, and a chilling last line, Cannon’s latest novel is brilliantly plotted and deliciously dark.
This unbiased review is from an audio copy provided by NetGalley and Harper Collins UK Audio.
‘But how do you know?’
‘Know what, Linda?’
‘Who are the people who are seeing the world how it really is and who are the people that are mistaken? How do you know which way around it is?’”
A Tidy Ending is the third novel by best-selling British psychiatrist and author, Joanna Cannon. The audio version is narrated by Lissa Berry and includes a chat with the author that reveals the genesis of the novel and also of a particular incident in the story. Linda and Terry Hammett have recently moved to Cavendish Avenue from another house on their estate: this one isn’t so different, but it’s where Linda wants to live. She is dismayed to find that her life hasn’t improved: she’s still working her part-time job at the charity shop; her opinionated mother still criticises her every move; and Terry still ignores her efforts to keep everything properly clean.
Accidentally opening a catalogue addressed to the former resident, Rebecca Finch, she’s soon convinced that if this woman were her friend, her life would be so much better: perfect, in fact. Could she track down this potential friend?
But people on the estate are becoming uneasy: a young woman’s body was found by the canal, and this is the second one in just a few weeks. By the time a third body is found, people are talking about a serial killer, anonymous threatening letters are circulating, and Linda’s mother Eunice is getting anxious: the restlessness in the neighbourhood reminds her a little too closely of the reason she and Linda left Wales thirty years earlier.
Linda prides herself on being observant, on remembering details, and she’s noticed that Terry is departing from his usual schedule, one of several things that are suddenly out of the ordinary with her husband. And she’s surprised that no one else has noticed anything about the photograph shown in the police press conference, but the police, who can’t be trusted anyway, are repeatedly dismissive of anything Linda brings to their attention.
Linda relates her story from within some sort of care facility, six weeks after everything happened, but it’s soon apparent that she’s an unreliable narrator. She presents as naïve, a bit simple, and is used to people underestimating her, doesn’t mind that, in fact. Those who are aware of her history might put it down to a traumatic childhood experience…
From keenly observed human traits and behaviours, Cannon crafts characters familiar to us all from everyday life: the gossipy, hygiene-obsessed mother, the ever-vigilant, self-appointed street monitor, and the lazy, unappreciative husband, among others.
Linda’s inner monologue is filled with insightful observations: “There are certain people who make you start to worry when they say there’s nothing to worry about. Doctors, for example, and often accountants. But especially police officers. When a police officer tells you there’s nothing to worry about, you know it’s time to be concerned” and “Because when something extraordinary happens, if you concentrate on the ordinary things instead, it stops you from having to look at it all too closely.”
Cannon has a talent for descriptive prose: “Mother has always been very good at spotting untruths and scooping them out of their shells, like whelks. Even when I disguised a lie in a wide avenue of truth, she could still manage to find it, because all she had to do was stare at me for long enough and out it would pop and wave at her” and “My mother is a surrogate for other people’s lives, stacking the empty shelves of her mind with nonsense” and “She said it kindly. Not like most people. Not like Mother’s words with their serrated edges.”
This is a story so cleverly constructed that even the most astute reader is unlikely to see the full picture before the jaw-dropping reveal. With red herrings, twists and distractions, and a chilling last line, Cannon’s latest novel is brilliantly plotted and deliciously dark.
This unbiased review is from an audio copy provided by NetGalley and Harper Collins UK Audio.
May 21, 2022
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of
A Tidy Ending.
I admit I picked this up and put it down a half dozen times before I started to get into it.
** Minor spoilers ahead **
We meet Linda, a meek woman married to a schlubby man named Terry and with an overbearing mother.
When Linda was young, her father did something very bad which forced Linda and her mother to leave town and start a new life.
But the loss of her father has never left Linda; she thinks about him constantly and how his death affected her small family. He was the only one she was close to.
At the same time, a series of murders are rocking her small town and setting the locals on edge.
When mail addressed to the previous occupant, Rebecca, arrives, Linda is convinced if she only emulated Rebecca, she would be just as successful and confident.
She ends up befriending Rebecca and her partner, determined to remake herself and her image. But,
Linda has a plan, and it's not what anyone can imagine.
The writing is good, but the pacing is slow, lacking suspense.
I'm not a fan of novels featuring characters like Linda; she is socially awkward, perhaps on the spectrum; she doesn't get inside jokes, sarcasm or pay attention to body language.
Most of the narrative is about her observations about the people in her neighborhood, social interactions with colleagues and neighbors, and dealing with her frustrating mother.
These comments are blunt, accurate and right on the spot, but filled with the mundane.
There are pages of her first visit to a department store, which she's never been to; Linda doesn't understand social cues, jokes or when someone is laughing at her expense.
At first I couldn't understand why Linda was so intent on befriending Rebecca but I soon understood her ulterior motive.
This made it difficult for me to suspend disbelief for the identity of the serial killer, though I had guessed correctly right from the start.
Nothing about Linda suggests she is a clever, devious person. She's just not interesting, which I guess is the point of the twist at the end. But I didn't believe it.
I can see she's socially maladjusted, mentally and psychologically devastated by the loss of her father, who she talks about constantly (it's creepily Freudian how much she obsesses over him), despite how many years have passed since his death.
I get it; her father was the only one who understood her, unlike her mother who scoffs and scolds her nearly all the time.
I understand Linda is not whom she appears to be but I didn't believe the ending.
The writing was good, the style and tone is a bit formal, which makes sense according to Linda's personality, but there's no suspense or urgency and most of the time, I felt my attention drifting as I read.
I admit I picked this up and put it down a half dozen times before I started to get into it.
** Minor spoilers ahead **
We meet Linda, a meek woman married to a schlubby man named Terry and with an overbearing mother.
When Linda was young, her father did something very bad which forced Linda and her mother to leave town and start a new life.
But the loss of her father has never left Linda; she thinks about him constantly and how his death affected her small family. He was the only one she was close to.
At the same time, a series of murders are rocking her small town and setting the locals on edge.
When mail addressed to the previous occupant, Rebecca, arrives, Linda is convinced if she only emulated Rebecca, she would be just as successful and confident.
She ends up befriending Rebecca and her partner, determined to remake herself and her image. But,
Linda has a plan, and it's not what anyone can imagine.
The writing is good, but the pacing is slow, lacking suspense.
I'm not a fan of novels featuring characters like Linda; she is socially awkward, perhaps on the spectrum; she doesn't get inside jokes, sarcasm or pay attention to body language.
Most of the narrative is about her observations about the people in her neighborhood, social interactions with colleagues and neighbors, and dealing with her frustrating mother.
These comments are blunt, accurate and right on the spot, but filled with the mundane.
There are pages of her first visit to a department store, which she's never been to; Linda doesn't understand social cues, jokes or when someone is laughing at her expense.
At first I couldn't understand why Linda was so intent on befriending Rebecca but I soon understood her ulterior motive.
This made it difficult for me to suspend disbelief for the identity of the serial killer, though I had guessed correctly right from the start.
Nothing about Linda suggests she is a clever, devious person. She's just not interesting, which I guess is the point of the twist at the end. But I didn't believe it.
I can see she's socially maladjusted, mentally and psychologically devastated by the loss of her father, who she talks about constantly (it's creepily Freudian how much she obsesses over him), despite how many years have passed since his death.
I get it; her father was the only one who understood her, unlike her mother who scoffs and scolds her nearly all the time.
I understand Linda is not whom she appears to be but I didn't believe the ending.
The writing was good, the style and tone is a bit formal, which makes sense according to Linda's personality, but there's no suspense or urgency and most of the time, I felt my attention drifting as I read.
October 29, 2024
Beware there might be a serial killer in your neighborhood, right under your noses.
This author has always delivered very quirky characters and storylines that keep you going and questioning, what is really going on here?
Should I be concerned?
Is this person guilty?
Or is this person innocent?
Stick around and wait for it, and then ask yourself, was that what I expected to happen?
This author has always delivered very quirky characters and storylines that keep you going and questioning, what is really going on here?
Should I be concerned?
Is this person guilty?
Or is this person innocent?
Stick around and wait for it, and then ask yourself, was that what I expected to happen?
May 22, 2022
4.5*
Linda is the narrator of the story via a shifting timeline and as the central character, we see events from her perspective. Following a troubled childhood, when Linda and her mother left their old life in Wales, she has tried to reinvent herself. However her marriage to Terry is rather a disappointment and the recent house move on the same estate which she thought would bring a whole new way of life has not turned out that way. Its just the same life in a different house.
When Linda receives upmarket catalogues addressed to the previous occupant, Rebecca, she becomes obsessed by them. They offer a lifestyle that she can only dream of and in Linda’s delusional world, Rebecca becomes her best friend. So (she does what most people wouldn’t do), she decides to try and track her down.
Linda is one of those characters that you can’t help cringing at whilst feeling some empathy. She’s lonely and would love a friend or two but she’s rather socially awkward and frequently misreads signals and body language and imagines every new acquaintance as a best friend and at times you worry that she’s being taken advantage of. The reader can see what is happening when others edge away and pretend to be busy but Linda appears oblivious, bless her.
The story gets even more interesting when a body of a young woman is found nearby and it doesn’t end there. Locals have the jitters and the whole awful affair feels too close for comfort.
There is no doubt that Joanna Cannon has a wonderful way with words and character structure. Her depiction of Linda with her unique voice was superb and there were so many times when I found myself nodding along in agreement with Linda’s view of life or chuckling at her observations and asides. Lest you think this is just one woman’s monologue of a mundane life, the inclusion of the murder strand brings a darkness and sinister anticipation to the story, as do other characters that Linda becomes involved with.
The pretty yellow cover is totally at odds with the story within. More than once I thought I was ahead of the story only to be wrong-footed. A Tidy Ending is mesmerising, gripping and so very clever. A definite must read.
Linda is the narrator of the story via a shifting timeline and as the central character, we see events from her perspective. Following a troubled childhood, when Linda and her mother left their old life in Wales, she has tried to reinvent herself. However her marriage to Terry is rather a disappointment and the recent house move on the same estate which she thought would bring a whole new way of life has not turned out that way. Its just the same life in a different house.
When Linda receives upmarket catalogues addressed to the previous occupant, Rebecca, she becomes obsessed by them. They offer a lifestyle that she can only dream of and in Linda’s delusional world, Rebecca becomes her best friend. So (she does what most people wouldn’t do), she decides to try and track her down.
Linda is one of those characters that you can’t help cringing at whilst feeling some empathy. She’s lonely and would love a friend or two but she’s rather socially awkward and frequently misreads signals and body language and imagines every new acquaintance as a best friend and at times you worry that she’s being taken advantage of. The reader can see what is happening when others edge away and pretend to be busy but Linda appears oblivious, bless her.
The story gets even more interesting when a body of a young woman is found nearby and it doesn’t end there. Locals have the jitters and the whole awful affair feels too close for comfort.
There is no doubt that Joanna Cannon has a wonderful way with words and character structure. Her depiction of Linda with her unique voice was superb and there were so many times when I found myself nodding along in agreement with Linda’s view of life or chuckling at her observations and asides. Lest you think this is just one woman’s monologue of a mundane life, the inclusion of the murder strand brings a darkness and sinister anticipation to the story, as do other characters that Linda becomes involved with.
The pretty yellow cover is totally at odds with the story within. More than once I thought I was ahead of the story only to be wrong-footed. A Tidy Ending is mesmerising, gripping and so very clever. A definite must read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,176 reviews