Richard’s Review
One of the great pleasures for us in choosing books for our book club is the huge range of writing styles and storytelling we get to sample.
There are some fast-paced novels in this latest collection, but Liane Moriarty’s wonderful story isn’t one of them. And that’s a compliment. Liane really takes her time telling us about the Delaney family, and every one of her pages is a page to savour.
Because the Delaney’s are a subtle, complicated bunch. Not what they seem. Not at all. You can’t rush the description of a family like that, and you wouldn’t want Moriarty to.
So, sit back and sink into what might at first seem like a feather-bed of a story. A feather bed, perhaps– but one with broken glass hidden deep within its deceptively soft folds.
Judy’s Review
The Delaney family grab your interest from the start. Yes, they love each other. But like so many families, sometimes they want to murder each other. And is that what has happened here?
Because when matriarch Joy Delaney simply vanishes – her new bicycle missing, no explanatory or farewell note, no voicemails or text messages – a cloud of suspicion begins to form. Particularly over her husband, Stan. What are those odd, fresh scratch marks on his face? Who exactly was the stranger who suddenly entered and then exited Joy and Stan’s lives?
And what of their four grown-up children? As the mystery of Joy’s disappearance deepens, they begin to wonder if they know anything about their parents at all.
