This reading group guide for A Tidy Ending includes an introduction, discussion questions, and ideas for enhancing your book club. But the loss of her father has never left Linda; she thinks about him constantly and how his death affected her small family. The story gets even more interesting when a body of a young woman is found nearby and it doesn’t end there. How did what you read in these scenes influence what you thought would happen in the central timeline? 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.

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. I have loved the other two books I have read by this author, and so came to this one with high expectations. No, people will say, Linda isn’t in any of those—she was never very big on parties or No, I don’t think Linda was there that day. The only problem is, you try to carry on reading, away from the gap where a story has once been, but—of course—the other side of the page is missing too, so that doesn’t make any sense either. If only Linda could become friends with this Rebecca, she’d stop worrying so much about what Terry might be up to.A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon is a book that had me very intrigued and I must admit I wasn’t sure where the storyline was going. 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.

Last year, a breakout debut novel hit the scene, and everyone fell in love with the character Molly in Nita Prose’s “The Maid”. If Linda could just track down Rebecca, who lived in the house before them, maybe some of that perfection would rub off on her.The novel was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize, shortlisted for The Bookseller Industry Awards 2017 and won the 2016 BAMB Reader Award. Even if people are pressed a bit harder, they will still find it difficult to dredge up a little anecdote, to pull some distant memory from the back of their minds to single me out. Very persistent, they are, standing outside the house all hours of the day and night, ringing the doorbell, climbing garden walls, and knocking on windows. A slow-burn thriller that follows a suburban wife's fascination with a former tenant might lead to frightening revelations about the person she thought she knew best.

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. I picture a lot of people sitting around on furniture in relaxed poses—unnecessary visuals, enough is enough. 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. She soon found herself writing the book that would become her bestselling debut, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep.While local speculation about the crime reaches fever pitch, Linda becomes obsessed with the seemingly glamorous former occupant of her new home. Piglet is the searing, unforgettable and original debut which is set to take readers by storm in 2024. He’d have our wedding photograph to show people, of course, although I’d really rather no one else saw that.