Book 94: Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
Book 94: Elizabeth is Missing.
Author: Emma Healey, 2014.
Genre: Mystery. Ageing.
Other Details: ebook. 323 pages.
Maud’s been getting forgetful. She keeps buying peach slices when she has a cupboard full, forgets to drink the cups of tea she’s made and writes notes to remind herself of things. But Maud is determined to discover what has happened to her friend, Elizabeth, and what it has to do with the unsolved disappearance of her sister Sukey just after the Second World War. - synopsis from author's website.
A very intriguing and different mystery given that the protagonist, 82-year old Maud, struggles with dementia. The mystery of her friend Elizabeth's whereabouts becomes bound up in the memory of the disappearance of her sister after the war. It was interesting that these memories of times long past were more accessible to her than those that had taken place more recently.
This very popular novel was the selection for both of my reading groups and was well received by both. In the library group we had quite a small meeting though all of us that had read the book and felt it worked well. Of course, we talked about the fear of dementia whether for ourselves or for those close to us. With the second it was a younger group though again the theme of memory loss was discussed as much or even more than the mystery aspect of the book.
Certainly a strong début novel that deserved the Costa Book Award it won.
Cross-posted to 50bookchallenge.