Thank you so much to Sourcebooks Landmark and Netgalley for the ARC of One Puzzling Afternoon by Emily Critchley. This beautiful novel was published yesterday and I encourage you to get your hands on a copy. 

Using a dual-timeline, readers meet 84 year old Edie Green in 2018 and also 15 year old Edie in 1951 England. In 1951 Edie is lonely. Her father passed away and her eccentric mother remarries Reg, a very unlikable character. Then Edie learns a secret about popular Lucy Theddle. Lucy befriends Edie, at first to make sure Edie keeps her secret, but the two grow closer. Edie, though, is nagged by this secret and knows in her heart she shouldn’t be keeping it. Then, Lucy goes missing. 

More than sixty years later, Edie is suffering from “muddled spells” (the beginnings of dementia), but swears she sees Lucy in town, looking the same as she did at 15. Something nags at Edie’s memory–she must figure out what really happened to Lucy. 

I don’t think I’ve ever read something told from the perspective of a person suffering from the beginnings of dementia. As a reader, to be experiencing Edie’s fading memory along with her is incredibly powerful and hard, but also had me feeling such empathy for Edie. I rooted for her the entire time and found her to be such a wonderful character. My eyes were misty several times and I wanted to hug Edie and help her solve the long-ago mystery. The mystery was well done, especially as it flipped from past to present. This would be an excellent book club choice as well.