A British housewife living in a quiet neighborhood becomes obsessed with the former resident of her new house and her seemingly envious lifestyle while her husband starts acting suspicious and young women in town start to go missing.
Linda is a simple, unassuming suburban wife who passes her days thumbing through catalogs addressed to her home’s previous owner - a woman apparently more glamorous than Linda - picking up after and cooking for her husband Terry, and working at the local thrift shop. When a killer begins murdering young women in Linda’s neighborhood, it does insert a bit of commotion into Linda’s otherwise dull life because the entire town is buzzing about who the perpetrator could be and where he might strike next. So what is Linda, a woman who notices and catalogs even the most minute details, to do when she begins to suspect her husband of something nefarious? He is keeping odd hours, showering immediately when he gets home, and discarding some of his most favorite possessions - is it possible he is the killer?
Joanna Cannon’s A Tidy Ending is an unusual story filled with unconventional characters, reminiscent of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Convenience Store Woman. Linda is a quirky, awkward lead, and is the type of person who doesn’t pick up on rather obvious social clues, leaving her behaving badly in a variety of situations. Threaded throughout this narrative of Linda’s mundane days is a murder mystery, which begins to consume Linda and her neighbors’ lives. Linda distracts herself by tracking down her home’s previous owner and inappropriately inserting herself in her life … which is where this story really gets interesting. Is the lonely Linda off her rocker or is she just desperate for friendship and distraction?
A Tidy Ending is for readers who enjoy a story that feels “different,” with characters who are not mainstream or even arguably likable. While the novel does move slowly at times, plodding through Linda’s every errant thought, the payoff is big at the end, with some twists that you may or may not see coming depending on how observant you are and how well you string clues together.
- Brooke, Public Relations Librarian