I’m really sorry that I let this one sit on my NetGalley shelf for so long! Thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.
The story opens in 1980 with the chance meeting of two women on Hampstead Common. Elise Morceau is young and naive and immedialtely falls under the spell of Constance Holden. Connie is older, already a successful writer and confident in ways Elise isn’t. When Connie’s book gets made into a Hollywood film, Elise accompanies her to Los Angeles and the pair fall into a glamorous party lifestyle.
This 1980s story – essentially of the relationship between the two women – is interspersed with a present day story in which Rose Simmonds is looking for her mother. When she learns that Connie was part of her mother’s life, she decides to ask some difficult questions of the writer – now in her 70s and a recluse…
I loved the settings of this book in particular – the emptiness of the glamorous LA lifestyle was well-presented and contrasted with the narrow, pared-down life within Connie’s house in the present day.
The characters are also beautifully drawn. Although I didn’t get much sense of the physical appearance of the people, their internal lives are absorbing and immersive. I liked that we get real insight into Elise and Rose, but that Connie does remain quite a mysterious figure in both the 1980s and present day stories. As the stories are revealed, there is real character nuance as we are given insights into thought processes and decisions made for reasons good, bad and ugly.
I’ll happily admit that I had no idea about where the book was going. I was fine with being drawn along by the narrative and was properly staggered at some of the revelations. The plotting was clever, even if the ending wasn’t quite what I thought I wanted. I say ‘thought I wanted’ purely because I’m not sure the ending I had planned in my head worked entirely satisfactorily either!
I also listened to the audiobook – read by Hayley Atwell – which I thought was excellent. I especially liked being able to ‘hear’ Connie as she was given a very distinctive, quite cold and detached voice, which I thought suited the character perfectly. I’d whole-heartedly recommend the audiobook – although it took a bit of getting used to the shift between past and present without being able to flick back a few pages to check!
I’d recommend this book to those who enjoy dual narrative books with depth and mystery. There is much to enjoy and be intrigued by in the stories of Elise and Rose – plus Connie is an absolutely hypnotic central figure who I – at different times – loved, loved to hate, felt frustrated at and sorry for. The book is a gloriously subtle and engrossing tale and I’ll definitely look for more by this writer.
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Header photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
