One Puzzling Afternoon: A Novel

by Emily Critchley

Overview

One of People Magazine's "must-read" books!

"A clever, keep-'em-guessing murder mystery, an empathetic yet realistic portrayal of the toll dementia takes, and a meditation on how the brain can bury the most tragic memories...An outstanding must-read." —Booklist, STARRED review

I kept your secret Lucy. I've kept it for more than sixty years...

It is 1951, and at number six Sycamore Street fifteen-year-old Edie Green is lonely. Living with her eccentric mother and her mother's new boyfriend, she is desperate for something to shake her from her dull, isolated life.

So when the popular, pretty Lucy Theddle befriends Edie, she thinks all her troubles are over. Even though Lucy has a secret, one Edie is not certain she should keep.

Then Lucy goes missing.

Now in 2018, Edie is eighty-four and still living in the same small town, when one afternoon she glimpses Lucy Theddle, still looking the same as she did at fifteen. Her family write it off as one of her many mix ups, there's a lot Edie gets confused about these days. But Edie knows she's the key to finding Lucy. 

Time is running out and Edie must piece together the clues before Lucy is forgotten forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728287164
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	10/03/2023
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	142,831
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

Editorial Reviews

"A clever, keep-‘em-guessing murder mystery, an empathetic yet realistic portrayal of the toll dementia takes, and a meditation on how the brain can bury the most tragic memories...An outstanding must-read." — Booklist, STARRED review

"This beautifully written suspense novel...is heartbreaking as it depicts a woman sinking deeper into dementia." — Library Journal

"A captivating and poignant book, I was completely hooked. You can't help but fall for Edie as she desperately tries to find the lost friend from her past, while she begins to lose herself to dementia in the present." — Marianne Cronin, author of The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot 

"An uplifting, bittersweet story with a page-turning mystery at its heart. Emily Critchley writes about aging and memory with huge warmth and compassion.A beautifully atmospheric and endearing book." — Freya Sampson, author of The Last Chance Library

"One Puzzling Afternoon introduces Edie Green, a sympathetic protagonist, at the dawn and dusk of her womanhood, and gives the reader the satisfying task of slipping back and forth in time to untangle the events of younger Edie's life that have begun to slip from older Edie's memory." — Eva Jurczyk, international bestselling author of The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections

"One Puzzling Afternoon is a quiet, compelling mystery of a woman untangling the secrets locked inside herself. This truly unique story blends past and present in a way that feels real. Great atmosphere and even better characters." — Lucy Gilmore, author of The Lonely Hearts Book Club

"A splendid read. One Puzzling Afternoon is like finding your way through a maze blindfolded while sipping your favorite drink. Both scintillating and sincere, the prose pays homage to the nuance of memory and the confluence of age and understanding. I plan to spend many a coming afternoon with a Critchley novel in my hand, watching the past meet the present through her captivating lens." — Lo Patrick, author of The Floating Girls

"The story's beauty is in how it elegantly unpacks memory, friendship, and regret...Critchley leaves nothing undone and nothing to guess at later. Her pacing is exceptional as she unpeels Edie's story." — BookBrowse (Top Pick)

From the Publisher

09/01/2023

Edie Green was a lonely teen until Lucy Treddle, daughter of the mayor, befriended her in 1951. While Edie was glad that their friendship meant Lucy's friends wouldn't taunt her, Lucy had her own reasons to seek out Edie. She had secrets, and she needed Edie to keep them—which Edie did for 67 years, even after Lucy vanished and the police opened an investigation. In 2018, Edie, now dealing with dementia, thinks she sees Lucy on the street, looking just as she did in 1951. When she claims to have seen her friend, family members think Edie's just muddled again. Her granddaughter tries to help her, but she doesn't realize how desperate Edie feels. She is convinced that all the clues to finding her friend are buried in her memory and feels that if she can find Lucy, her confusion and memory loss will disappear. In dual timelines, 1951 and 2018, Edie slowly reveals the truth about Lucy and her secrets. VERDICT This beautifully written suspense novel, the U.S. debut from British poet and middle-grade author Critchley, is heartbreaking as it depicts a woman sinking deeper into dementia.—Lesa Holstine

Library Journal

Narrator Elizabeth Sastre adopts a gentle voice for this complex, sometimes puzzling, mystery about the disappearance of Lucy Theddle in 1951. The story is told in 1982 by Edie Green, an octogenarian with aphasia and dementia who was Lucy's best friend. Aided by her intrepid, cheerful granddaughter, Amy, soft-voiced Edie follows sketchy clues plumbed from her memories. In alternating chapters, 15-year-old Edie recounts the events leading up to Lucy's disappearance. Sastre's tone rarely varies between Edie at 15 and Edie at 82, forcing listeners to pay close attention to the story's clues while remembering the current time frame and wondering what happened 30 years earlier. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2023 - AudioFile