Book Review - Quarter Past Two On a Wednesday Afternoon

I got this after hearing it reviewed on Radio 2 last year sometime. It is Linda Newbery's first novel for adults although she is an established children's story writer.

The story is mostly set in the present time and focused on Anna a young woman who when a teenager her elder sister, Rose, disappeared at a Quarter Past Two on a Wednesday Afternoon.  The narrative then flips back and forth to times before Rose's disappearance and just afterwards as well as further back as part of the story involves her mother and her loss of her brother (Anna's uncle) when he was a teenager in a drowning accident.

The book deals with loss, sibling rivalry, love, deception, etc.  It is a complicated weaving of various components which I found intriguing.  Not a rip roaring fast paced page turner, more a sitting back middle of the afternoon with a cup of tea and a bun type book.  Maybe more geared to female readers than male but I still enjoyed it.  In fact I did get quite engrossed and engaged in the lives of the characters to the point where close to the end of the book there was a setting where I feared something awful might happen that I actually stopped reading the book at that point thinking I needed to gird my emotional loins so that I could stomach that act if it did happen and picked the book up later in the day when I felt ready to face it.   Also there is a really great reveal at one point in the novel that left me stunned - never saw it coming and I was left as bewildered as the narrator at that point by that.  That part was very well done indeed.

So overall a recommendation.  I'd give it between one and two thumbs up on the  FTUBRS*


* Furtheron Thumbs Up Book Review Scale - 
lowest is both thumbs down with a frown
two thumbs down, 
one thumb horizontal,
two thumbs horizontal, 
one thumb up, 
two thumbs up 
two thumbs up with a grin - very rarely awarded