First I want to thank you to Netgalley & Joanna Cannon for my copy of A Tidy Ending for an honest review. Linda lives a full but quiet life. Her neighborhood is boring and her husband isn’t the best husband. Linda didn’t couldn’t imagine her life would end up like. She always had high hopes for a more glamorous lifestyle and it never happened. She has a troubled past and she is looking for a happier future. All the while she is dreaming of an alternative life, her life is crashing around her. Her husband, who does nothing but work and sit by the TV, suddenly takes on new shifts at his job. Young women are being murdered in the town and she desperately wants to meet the old tenant of her home. Rebecca, the prior tenant seems to have the life Linda wants. Linda finally meets Rebecca and her world starts getting exciting, in the most unusual way. I really liked this book. The writing and the characters were great. I love a good quirky book and this fit the bill.. I had to keep reading to see how this train wreck would end!!!! My kind of book!! This was a four star read for me.. I hope you enjoy it too!!!!

Linda and her mother escaped a tragic past in Wales that is alluded to but never fully explained. Now Linda lives with her husband, Terry, and works part-time at a charity shop, giving her time to spend with her mother. Terry is content to spend most evenings in front of the television, while Linda reads magazines and catalogs sent to the mysterious Rebecca, the previous resident of their house.

A series of disappearances and murders rocks their village, but Linda remains strangely incurious. She's too busy cleaning and forging a friendship with Rebecca.

Linda's social awkwardness is sometimes amusing, but often cringey. This is a strange, but engaging, novel that I'm not entirely sure I completely understood. #ATidyEnding #NetGalley

Linda’s childhood in Wales was anything but peaceful. But now she is married and living in a quiet neighborhood near London. Working at a charity shop and cleaning her house seems to occupy most of her time. But, when glossy catalogues are delivered and addressed to Rebecca, the former occupant of her home, Linda begins to dream of a different life and what it would be like to be best friends with the unknown Rebecca. Meanwhile, there are several unsolved murders plaguing the neighborhood and Linda’s husband has begun to keep odd hours.

From the beginning, it’s obvious that Linda is quirky (to put it mildly). She doesn’t know how to make friends or even interact appropriately with other people and she is also somewhat obsessive about germs. When her husband begins to work odd hours, with unexplained absences, Linda vaguely questions the reasons, but doesn’t’ go any further. The story rambles around, mostly in Linda’s head, and there were times it was difficult to follow the train of thought. All of the characters are unappealing, the attempt at humor unsatisfactory and, in the end, I simply found Linda to be pitiable and sad. I would give it 2.5 stars but I don’t think this was the book for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

This one is so hard to review. Mostly, I loved it, but I didn't love it until the end. Reviews are mixed about the ending - and I did find it a bit confusing and had to go back and re-read it to make sure I fully understood (I think mostly out of shock), and I still find myself going back and thinking "wait, do I have that right?" - but I loved it. I did find the beginning a bit slow and Linda somewhat annoying - I couldn't figure out where this was going. Once I started cluing into this suspense that was gradually building, I was in! Linda is a strange bird, and the entire book I couldn't decide if I liked her or not. She's an unreliable narrator, but it takes awhile to figure that out. What seems obvious, she appears clueless about. She does things and says things that make you cringe. A lot of reviews have compared this book to The Maid, which I haven't read, but apparently if you liked that, you'll enjoy this one. I say, give this one a go!

A Tidy Ending
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Genre: Fiction / Mystery
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 8/2/22
Author: Joanna Cannon
Publisher: Scribner
Pages: 352
Goodreads Rating: 4.02

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Scribner and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: Linda has lived in a quiet neighborhood since fleeing the dark events of her childhood in Wales. Linda’s husband Terry isn’t perfect—until he starts keeping odd hours at work, at around the same time young women in the town start to go missing. If only Linda could track down and befriend Rebecca, maybe some of that enviable lifestyle would rub off on her and she wouldn’t have to worry about what Terry is up to. But the grass isn’t always greener and you can’t change who you really are. And some secrets can’t stay buried forever…

My Thoughts: The story is narrated in alternating then and now timeframes. Some parts of the story were slow, but entertaining enough to keep engaged throughout the story. I do not want to detail too much about Linda as I want you to experience Linda the way I do, but I will say that I loved envisioning the world through Linda’s eyes, it really transported me there in the moment. Linda’s character reminded me of Molly from Nita Prose’s The Maid, as in the way she sees life and personally I love that type of character. I don’t know how this is the first book I have read by Cannon but it will not be my last. The characters were well developed with depth, mystery, dark humor, and written so well, I felt like I was in the shoes of Linda. This was more of a character driven book than a plot driven book. The author’s writing style was complex, suspenseful, twisted, and just brilliantly written. I felt so many emotions while reading this story from sadness, laughter, happiness, overjoyed, and anything in between. This book was released earlier this month and I do recommend it.

Thank you, @netgalley, and @scribnerbooks,for the eARC in return for an honest review.

My Thoughts:
3 ⭐️ This is my first time reading a book from this author.

Linda is a 40 year old housewife who, at a young age, fled Wales with her overbearing mother after her father’s arrest and death. She works part time at a charity shop, leading a boring life with her unappreciative husband, Terry. She is socially awkward, currently obsessing over the previous tenant of their house, and now three girls were murdered in her hometown.

The pacing is really slow. It took me awhile to finish the book. Mainly it was Linda and her inner dialogue throughout the book. But what gave it a 3 ⭐️ was the twist in the later chapters. It was smart, surprising, and yet predictable too. Otherwise it was okay.

This book. Hoo boy.

Three-sentence summary: Linda lives a quiet life with her incredibly mediocre husband, Terry, who eventually finds himself the chief suspect in a serial murder investigation. Meanwhile, Linda is fixated on her house's previous resident, Rebecca, who must obviously have a glamorous, perfect life because she receives catalogues in the mail that still come to her old address. Linda inserts herself in Rebecca's life all while excising her own demons from a painful childhood.

I am so tired of authors writing "quirky" characters with exaggerated characteristics that would put them on the Autism spectrum if they weren't so grossly over-written. It makes a farce of a real condition that effects over 75m people globally. Not being able to read social cues, hyper-fixations, misunderstanding humor... these are symptoms, not adorable quirks. Linda reads like a caricature, not a character; reading scene after scene of her just entirely missing the plot is frustrating, not endearing. Worse, the conclusion of A Tidy Ending calls into question whether or not Linda's behaviors are in fact innate to her personhood or whether they're part of an elaborate, deliberate, sinister performance.

All in all, not a great introduction to Cannon's work, which I understand is beloved by many. Her writing is clearly accomplished, but the characters and plot in A Tidy Ending were entirely unpalatable.

4.5⭐️‘s

Such a good book by Joanna Cannon. The story is about Linda, a middle-aged woman who is discontent with her life - boring inattentive husband, job in a thrift store which she really enjoys but is just so mundane for her! Her imagination is wild and she creates friendships out of mere glances. Half the time you can't figure out if she is "all there" or if what she says is true. Enter a series of catalogs in the mail addressed to the previous owner. Linda's fantasy life increases the more she looks at the lovely, expensive things in these catalogs. Ultimately she finds (translated "stalks") the intended recipient and cultivates a friendship with her which is very twisty turny. With a surprise ending, this was a great book!

This is a very slow burn, but the payoff is satisfying. Cannon does such a good job of inhabiting the mind space of an unreliable narrator and revealing potential delusion in interesting and sneaky ways. This is a very entertaining thriller with that dry British vocabulary and vernacular that serves the genre so well!

I enjoyed the stark contrast between the sad, dull life of instantly forgettable Linda and the brutal murders in her neighbourhood which so fascinated her. These chapters are themselves contrasted with the present day, when Linda seems to be in some kind of a care home. It’s all very mysterious, and utterly gripping. Despite the horror of the murders, there’s a kind of cozy mystery murder thing going on.
Joanna Cannon just gets ordinary people and writes so gently, but with such delightful humour about human foibles. Her depiction of Linda’s mother, in particular, is absolutely hilarious – we all know someone like her, and I laughed out loud again and again. She writes beautifully and I was constantly asking myself how come I’d never seen things that way before. Even when giving her sometimes fairly depressing observations about the meaninglessness of life, or being utterly cynical, she manages to amuse. In some ways this book is a non-stop commentary on modern life, in the guise of a murder mystery.
Linda is unlikeable, awkward and embarrassing. She endured a dysfunctional childhood with an over-critical, cruel, emotionally cold and ignorant mother. Her father killed himself following allegations of abusing his piano pupils. She lives a very depressing life with husband Terry. And then there are the mysterious Rebecca and Jolyon, who befriend Linda. I was kept in total suspense as to what their game was. The story is full of red herrings, misdirection and kept me guessing right up until the end.
I put the book down feeling that I would love to spend an afternoon with Joanne Cannon – I could listen to her slightly cynical but extremely funny take on modern day life all day long.

I ended up giving this book a 3/5 stars. I enjoyed it and it was fun to read from Linda’s perspective because of the way she comes across as a narrator, but I guessed one of the major “twists” about halfway through and that was a smidge disappointing because I usually am unable to do that.

Overall, I think A Tidy Ending is a fun read and a different vibe that leans less on creepy mystery and more on Linda’s versions of events, which is super fun to read!

I'm going to be thinking about A Tidy Ending for a long time.

This was a book that sort of snuck up on me. You're going along, reading about this odd woman's life, knowing something isn't quite right, and then bam! It really just punches you in the face.

It's hard to review this book without giving too much away, so I'll just say this: A Tidy Ending is an exquisite character study and also a tightly plotted mystery, and by and large, it does both of those things very very well. Linda is an engaging narrator, even as one can tell that she's not exactly sharing every single thing she knows. And when the book flipped everything I thought I knew about the story on its ear, I really did feel my jaw drop.

I do think the buildup was a bit slow - I found myself wondering for the first half or so if the payoff would be worth it. And while it was, that didn't change the fact that the start was a bit of a slog.

All in all, though, a great read that really sneaks up on you.

4/5

3.5 stars

I enjoyed this book for the most part. Linda was such a unique character, and while she seemed like an pretty average woman with a bit of a monotonous life, her childhood wasn’t quite so lack-luster. She’d fled her past for a quiet suburban life, but soon she became obsessed with the woman who previously lived in her home. Linda developed an obsession with Rebecca whose glamorous magazines still get delivered to Linda’s mailbox, and she hoped by finding and befriending Rebecca, maybe some of her elegant lifestyle would rub off on her. But while all of this was going on, her husband Terry was working odd hours and around the same time, women started going missing in town. We’re the two related or was it all just a strange coincidence?

I thought the end of this book was quite surprising. I had my suspicions, but it was much more complicated than I’d imagined. So much so that I actually found the ending to be really confusing, and it took away from my enjoyment of the book as a whole. I’m sure the author intended for there to be a bit of open interpretation on the reader’s part, but I personally felt there needed to be a little more clarification.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for providing a copy of this book to review.*

This book was unfortunately a DNF for me! I gave it a good college try but couldn’t find myself able to connect to the characters or invested in the story! I was super excited about receiving this ARC and I am so grateful for the opportunity but this one is a pass for me!

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this book!! I hope this book goes on to have great success!

A Tidy Ending totally blew my mind. I thought Linda was an unhappy and clueless woman. She definitely was miserable but a had a few tricks up her sleeve. The first half of the book was rather slow but once Linda started hanging out with Rebecca and creating a new life for herself, the story rolled. I did not see the ending coming and I would be shocked if anyone figures it out before Linda reveals the truth. Kudos to Cannon for her creativity!

A TIDY ENDING is the latest adult novel from Joanna Cannon. Like her earlier works, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep or Three Things about Elsie, there is a strong element of suspense and lurking danger. Police suspect that a serial killer may be attacking young women in a suburban English town where Linda Hammett and her husband Terry live. Linda clearly struggles with social contact; for example, there is a memorable scene on the tube here she tries to converse with other passengers who quickly change cars. An unreliable narrator, she is obsessed with music and cleaning and is somewhat reminiscent of Molly Graves in Nita Prose's The Maid. A big difference is that Molly generally had good intentions and readily shared a naïve stream of consciousness, but Cannon lets her reader brood about Linda's possible thoughts and actions, labeling chapters as Now (with Linda in an institution) whereas other chapters are a flashback to during the time of the investigation with Linda stalking the former tenant of her council house. Like Cannon's other well-written books, the pace is slow (readers need patience to fully enjoy her work) and then accelerates towards a rather shocking finale. A TIDY ENDING received a starred review from Booklist and Publishers Weekly.

This book was not for me. I normally like a quirky narrator but our main character wasn’t that. She was our main narrator and I wanted anyone but her to narrate. Being in her mind and reading her thoughts was miserable. I did not enjoy this book whatsoever. Maybe it’s the writing style but I just couldn’t relate to the main character whatsoever.

Linda, 43, has always been one to keep to herself and she tends to be a complete germaphobe. A She is married to Terry, a bland man whose habit of washing his filthy work hands in the kitchen sink irritates her. After eating dinner, he plops in front of the TV to watch sports.

The news that seems to dominate lately is that another young woman has gone missing and has been found dead. People are nervous that there is a serial killer out there.

Linda works part-time and is bored just doing housework and laundry when not at work. One day, she receives a magazine in the mail addressed to Rebecca Finch who was the woman who owned their house before them. As more magazines continue to arrives, Linda wraps herself up in the glamour inside them wishing to live a life like this. Better yet, if she could meet Rebecca, she knows they would be great friends.

In her naive quest to friend Rebecca, she doesn’t really “get” the woman’s reaction to her. This was when I really knew that Linda had more than on screw loose in her head. This is a dark book that follows the mundane life of a lonely, sad, and pathetic woman. I can’t really say that I enjoyed the story that much. I just thanked my lucky stars I wasn’t Linda.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book started off slow and I just couldn't get into it.

Usually, even when I can't relate to the character, I find something about the writing or their story that I like that keeps me going. This was not the case here.

Linda is quirky, i guess the word is. And we spend a LOT of time in her head. It took about 75% of the book before the story really got going and at the point, I was determined to finish just because I spent so much time trying to get through it.

The twist...left me confused...and not in a good way.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Everyone seems to love this book and I guess I did too. A dark comedy for sure and Cannon is a great writer. It started out a little slow for me - but I really got into it. The characters are very unique! Linda has just had it with her life and her husband and she becomes obsessed with Rebeca - her home's previous occupant. I wasn't prepared for the ending. I will be thinking about and making references to this book for a long time!