Kristen Perrin
In the summer of 1965, three teenage girls visit their village’s funfair and, just for a laugh, have their fortune told.
While Rose and Emily take it all as a joke, their best friend Frances can’t help but believe every word the fortune teller says.
From that moment on, her life is dominated by her fortune, no matter what everyone else says.
Frances does everything in her power to prevent the terrible fate predicte for her - being betrayed and murdered - and starts to collect information about each and everyone she comes in contact with.
When the apparently inevitable happens at last and Frances, now an elderly widow, is indeed found murdered, the two prospective heirs to her very real fortune and large estate have to find out who did it in order to inherit.
Frances’ great-niece Annie is one of the two contestants. She never knew her great-aunt Frances, but among the files she kept about her family members, nearly everyone in the village and other people she had dealings with, there is also a diary from that fateful summer of 1965.
Annie feels like she is getting to know Frances through her writing, regretting more and more that she never had the chance to meet her in life.
One of the three friends, Emily, disappeared the year after, never to be seen or heard of again. Rose is still around and is as shocked as everyone else when she learns that Frances’s prediction has finally come true.
More than one person has motive, means and opportunity to kill Frances, but why now? And how can Annie make sure she wins the race against time and solves the mystery before the (admittedly really attractive) detective or her (admittedly rather unpleasant) contestant?
When she gets close to the solution and hatches a plan that will help her to prove that she’s right, things take a dangerous turn…
This was a great read from start to finish, and I really didn’t guess the answers to the mysteries Annie finds herself confronted with – Emily’s disappearance back in the 1960s and Frances’ murder in the present.
There was humour, but also some food for thought. Some characters were a bit too only “good” or “bad” for real people in my opinion, but they fitted the story.
Annie’s actions didn’t always ring plausible, but who can tell how they’d react in similar circumstances.
The present-day story starts in summer (as does the 1965 part), and it was very nice for it to end on a beautiful autumn day when I was having just such a day in real life.
I was very pleased to see that a sequel already exists, with two more books either in the making or already out.
This one was certainly a very lucky find at the second-hand book sale of the church in town centre; if I don’t manage to find the sequel there, I guess I’ll “have to” buy it.
A first novel for the author, the book has one several awards – fully deserved. You can find the author’s website here.
Third time lucky! It sounds a really gripping read. It must be difficult to imagine an original starting point for a story.
ReplyDeleteIt was thoroughly enjoyable, and truly original - at least I've not come across a similar story before.
DeleteYou made it sound so great that I quickly went to my library website and placed a hold on it and the 2nd book by that author. Thanks so much for the glowing review, Meike! Have a nice weekend! :)
ReplyDeleteHopefully, you won't be disappointed - just because I loved it doesn't mean everybody else will :-)
Delete(In the 1990s, I discovered Martha Grimes' "Inspector Jury" novels. I loved them from the start, and kept telling my Mum and sister about them. As far as I remember, they both gave one of the books a try but were quite underwhelmed.)
PS: You too have a nice weekend, Ellen! Another family visit?
DeleteOh, I've enjoyed Martha Grimes too. Maybe I got the recommendation from your posts... Watching my grandsons tomorrow and working at a Halloween event at my local historical museum on Sunday! Busy, busy, busy! :)
DeleteThat sounds like a busy, busy, busy weekend indeed - but all fun!
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