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Flipping between 1976 and 1967 the reader is led to suspect and then
given tantalizing glimpses of the origin of the secret, often without giving
full answers. Walter Bishop and the fire at his in which his mother perished is
at the heart of the residents’ collective guilt. We are never shown Walter
doing any of the terrible things he is accused of however. It’s an interesting
study into how an outsider can be unfairly held up as a villain and tormented
by his nosy neighbours whose distrust of him is swept up in a communal,
ignorant judgment.
We see the stress of the residents rise at the thought of Mrs.
Creasy’s return when they consider how much she knew about each of them. The
street becomes claustrophobic, constantly watching each other, and a need to
toe the accepted line becomes apparent. There’s an interesting host of
characters – Dorothy and Harold Forbes whose conversation is always dominated
by Harold and his belief that his wife talks nonsense, convincing her that she
is suffering early onset dementia; John Creasy with his escalating OCD after
Mrs. Creasy leaves; ‘thin Brian’ who is stuck living with his overbearing
mother; Mrs. Morton, whose widowhood left her feeling humiliated due to the
circumstances of her husband’s death; Eric Lamb, a kindly widower who tends to
his garden with great care; and Grace’s own parents, unhappy in marriage, her
mother seemingly unable to cope with motherhood. Tilly’s mother never makes an
appearance but it is clear the others don’t think much of her. Grace is shown
to be more perceptive than many of the adults but also shows her young age in
her interactions with Tilly and desire to impress the slightly older Lisa.
This is a gentle whodunit that leaves much unresolved as if we’ve
just dropped in on the characters for a little while but leave before all the
drama has unfolded. At times a little far fetched (their obsession with a
creosote stain resembling Jesus seemed a step too far) but otherwise a touching
story with believable characters.
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