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This is a quirky black comedy which takes a breezy look at memory, responsibility and guilt. Jane Yardley's first novel maintains a lively style as it unfolds the story of four murders, three affairs, two marital collapses and one big lie. In the summer of 1965, Annie Cradock's innocent village childhood is shattered by a spate of murders. For Annie, the worst of these is that of her much-loved role model, Jenny Clitheroe. Through a series of farcical blunders, Annie perverts the course of justice so the crimes remain unsolved. Interwoven with this plot are episodes from Annie's adulthood; she becomes an energetic musician, frustrated by her marriage and still curious about Jenny Clitheroe's death. Yardley's characterization is one of her strengths. Annie is an offbeat child who matures into a maverick woman. The adult Annie regards her childhood self wryly, generating much of the book's humour. Yardley writes children well: she draws comedy from the frustrations of childhood and from young people's limited frame of reference. The novel's vivid imagery is informed by Yardley's synaesthesia. This ability to 'hear' in colour is also ascribed to her characters, Annie and Jenny. Images of Beethoven's music as green and Mick Jagger's as red lend the novel a surreal originality. Constant shifts between past and present allow Yardley to explore Annie's guilt effectively. Elsewhere, however, the novel's structure is a weak point. The plot is over-reliant on coincidence and a great deal of exposition is done repetitively through dialogue. These more pedestrian sections of the novel seem under-edited when set against Yardley's light, witty style. But this remains a lively, original first novel, and the comic set-pieces alone show Yardley's promise as an author of fresh, oddball tales. (Kirkus UK)
British headmaster's daughter stumbles upon a murder. Not quite a mystery and not exactly a coming-of-ager, Yardley's debut presents an array of mild-mannered eccentrics in an Essex village, circa 1965, seen through the eyes of Annie Cradock, a curious and sensitive ten-year-old. Annie is fascinated to find that Mrs. Clitheroe, her pretty, dithery music teacher, also sees music in color (a precious conceit of this discombobulated plot). Annie adores music, pop tunes in particular-and she's such a bloody little genius that she creates a sculpture she calls "Ruby Tuesday" before the Rolling Stones make the song famous. Her beloved father, a not-too-strict headmaster with a taste for whimsy, builds a replica of the Empire State Building out of 7,574 matchboxes and flies off to Idlewild to present the silly thing to Mayor Robert Wagner at the World's Fair. Not long after that, Mrs. Clitheroe is murdered. Did the seemingly harmless rag-and-bone man do it? Or was it one of the gypsy travelers who camped near the village? It's all very confusing to Annie (and to the reader). Years later, Annie decides to go along when her second husband, Alan, a biotech company CEO, accepts a job offer in New York. Perhaps she can teach singing. But her old childhood friend Babette asks whether Annie can truly be happy with renting a teaching studio in Manhattan and commuting from Westchester, which is where Alan wants to live. It's a good question. Meanwhile, Annie (in London with Alan to await her visa) has begun an intense affair with Daniel, husband #1 (on their reignited passion: "Perhaps it was always inevitable . . . "). Can she go to New York and leave Daniel once again? What about Alan? Back to the past: a 40-year-old photo album turns
This is a quirky black comedy which takes a breezy look at memory, responsibility and guilt. Jane Yardley's first novel maintains a lively style as it unfolds the story of four murders, three affairs, two marital collapses and one big lie. In the summer of 1965, Annie Cradock's innocent village childhood is shattered by a spate of murders. For Annie, the worst of these is that of her much-loved role model, Jenny Clitheroe. Through a series of farcical blunders, Annie perverts the course of justice so the crimes remain unsolved. Interwoven with this plot are episodes from Annie's adulthood; she becomes an energetic musician, frustrated by her marriage and still curious about Jenny Clitheroe's death. Yardley's characterization is one of her strengths. Annie is an offbeat child who matures into a maverick woman. The adult Annie regards her childhood self wryly, generating much of the book's humour. Yardley writes children well: she draws comedy from the frustrations of childhood and from young people's limited frame of reference. The novel's vivid imagery is informed by Yardley's synaesthesia. This ability to 'hear' in colour is also ascribed to her characters, Annie and Jenny. Images of Beethoven's music as green and Mick Jagger's as red lend the novel a surreal originality. Constant shifts between past and present allow Yardley to explore Annie's guilt effectively. Elsewhere, however, the novel's structure is a weak point. The plot is over-reliant on coincidence and a great deal of exposition is done repetitively through dialogue. These more pedestrian sections of the novel seem under-edited when set against Yardley's light, witty style. But this remains a lively, original first novel, and the comic set-pieces alone show Yardley's promise as an author of fresh, oddball tales. (Kirkus UK)
British headmaster's daughter stumbles upon a murder. Not quite a mystery and not exactly a coming-of-ager, Yardley's debut presents an array of mild-mannered eccentrics in an Essex village, circa 1965, seen through the eyes of Annie Cradock, a curious and sensitive ten-year-old. Annie is fascinated to find that Mrs. Clitheroe, her pretty, dithery music teacher, also sees music in color (a precious conceit of this discombobulated plot). Annie adores music, pop tunes in particular-and she's such a bloody little genius that she creates a sculpture she calls "Ruby Tuesday" before the Rolling Stones make the song famous. Her beloved father, a not-too-strict headmaster with a taste for whimsy, builds a replica of the Empire State Building out of 7,574 matchboxes and flies off to Idlewild to present the silly thing to Mayor Robert Wagner at the World's Fair. Not long after that, Mrs. Clitheroe is murdered. Did the seemingly harmless rag-and-bone man do it? Or was it one of the gypsy travelers who camped near the village? It's all very confusing to Annie (and to the reader). Years later, Annie decides to go along when her second husband, Alan, a biotech company CEO, accepts a job offer in New York. Perhaps she can teach singing. But her old childhood friend Babette asks whether Annie can truly be happy with renting a teaching studio in Manhattan and commuting from Westchester, which is where Alan wants to live. It's a good question. Meanwhile, Annie (in London with Alan to await her visa) has begun an intense affair with Daniel, husband #1 (on their reignited passion: "Perhaps it was always inevitable . . . "). Can she go to New York and leave Daniel once again? What about Alan? Back to the past: a 40-year-old photo album turns