I really enjoy books with a dual timeline, and reading Edie's life both as an elderly woman struggling with memory loss, and the young Edie who befriended Lucy prior to her disappearance in the early 1950's was interesting and intriguing. Racing against time before all her memories are gone, Edie wants to solve the mystery of her missing friend. Clues were paced well in each chapter, but I did think the pace of the story itself was a little slow at times. Overall, this was a solid read, but just not my personal favorite.

Today, eighty-four yr old Edie Havercroft is clearly entering the throes of dementia, but she’s started remembering parts of an incident relating to her then 15 yr old friend Lucy disappearance in 1951. Her family thinks with her current mental state that she’s just confused, but Edie is sure she knows something about what happened. A page-turner for sure.

Edie Green is 84 and suffering from dementia. She has started to see her friend from childhood, Lucy Theddle around town. Lucy disappeared when they were children and the case was never solved. Whether it's the dementia or knowing her time with her memories is limited, seeing Lucy has brought back some stories from the past. Now Edie is determined to find out what happened to Lucy so many years ago. I really liked Edie and how the people she's close to try and help her. The mystery itself was a little predictable to me. I also question why Edie would wait so many years to dig into the past. But overall it was a quick and enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me a digital review copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

2018 - Edie has started losing bits of memory, a word here, a name there, why she is in the kitchen and did she eat breakfast. But even as she loses more and more of these moments, her memories of the day her best friend, Lucy, disappeared 67 years ago begin to return after she is sure she sees her on the street although still young. Now, as so much of her life is fading, she is determined to find Lucy.

1951 - Edie is fifteen years old. She is a shy girl without friends, often bullied by the other girls. One day, she accidentally witnesses another girl’s secret. The girl. Lucy, is very popular so just knowing her secret makes Edie feel closer to her. She usually eats her lunch alone but, when she arrives at her usual spot, she finds Lucy there. They strike up a conversation and the pair become unlikely best friends. Soon, Edie becomes the keeper of all Lucy’s secrets right up until the day of Lucy’s disappearance.

One Puzzling Afternoon by Emily Critchley is a quiet, compelling, and often heartbreaking story told in the two alternating timelines. Edie is a very likeable but unreliable narrator due to her developing dementia which Critchley describes with deep compassion and empathy. The mystery, itself, was well-constructed and kept me guessing until the satisfying ending.

I received an arc of this book from Negalley and Sourcebooks in exchange for an honest review.

Edie Green, an elderly widow, has begun to show signs of dementia. As her son and his daughter try to help her navigate this challenge, Edie lives more in the past – particularly 1951 when she was befriended by one of the most popular girls in school, Lucy Theddle. But, then Lucy disappeared and was never found. Now, eighty-four-year-old Edie believes she has seen Lucy and knows that she is the only one who can, after all these years, find her missing friend. And, she knows her time is limited.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading One Puzzling Afternoon. It’s a well-conceived, well-written, and unique mystery with great characters. But it’s more than that. It’s heartwarming, emotional, and sometimes quite sad, and the author handles all of it quite brilliantly. As the reader, I could feel Edie’s frustrations and fears. But, I also cheered for her small triumphs such as remembering a word that alluded her. I could also feel the array of emotions that her son, Daniel, and granddaughter, Amy, felt as they watch Edie slip further away. It would seem that Ms Critchley has captured the effects that dementia has not only on its victims but on family members as well.

This book stayed with me long after I turned the last page. I’m looking forward to reading more books by this talented author. NetGalley provided an advance copy.

A good story told well.

I looked at the cover and the title and I assumed it would be a cozy mystery about a little old lady that solves a neighbourhood crime, while helping herself to buckets of tea and tons of biscuits while she does it.

Nope.

Do not judge this book by its cover the way I did. Whoever approved this cover and title has done this book a great injustice, because some people are bound to judge it the way I did, and dismiss it as a cloud of fluff. Please don't.

This is a wonderful story that is told in two timelines.

In the present day,i.e.,2018, our main character Edie is in her 80s. One afternoon, she believes that she sees her best friend Lucy outside the post office, and she looks exactly the way she did in 1951. How is that possible? And where did Lucy go? She can't remember what happened to Lucy, because she went missing at the age of sixteen, and now she's shown up again after all these years.

She's determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. Did Lucy die? Did she run away? She can't remember, and it's all quite puzzling, but she knows that the answer is buried somewhere deep inside herself.

You see, Edie has a secret that she has kept for all these decades. The problem is that she has now forgotten that secret and needs to remember. Edie's dementia is progressing, and she is determined to retain her independence and prove to her family that she can live by herself and doesn't need constant help and supervision. To do that, she needs to remember what happened to Lucy and solve the mystery of her disappearance. Then she knows her family will believe that her mind is still as sharp as it used to be.

In the 1951, Edie and Lucy are best friends, and Edie knows a secret about her friend-two secrets, in fact, that will greatly endanger her family's reputation and prestige. Edie's stepfather is a horrible man who she wants to escape from, and so both of them decide to catch a train and leave their little town forever, to go live together in London. However, on the day, Lucy doesn't show up at the train station, and Edie never gets on that train.

There is a search for Lucy, but she is never found, and Edie eventually carries on with her life, until now-until she sees Lucy outside the post office, and she knows she must find her.

It's a lovely story about friendship, and friendship is not only about the good times. It's also a commentary on life in the 1950s and the choices that women had to make because of their circumstances, and because of how society judged them.

I did have an issue with Edie's decision to go along with every single thing that Lucy said, and also with her decision to not reveal the truth after her parents had separated, and even after there was no need for her to defend or protect anyone anymore.

I was relieved and happy that Edie had a good son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter to take care of her and who didn't leave her alone in her old age, especially with the onset of dementia.

The truth of where Lucy went and what happened to her is finally revealed, as Edie recalls everything by the end of the book.

It was such a good story, with well-etched characters, and so engaging! I was totally absorbed in the flow of the narration, and so invested in the lives of these two girls.

Would definitely recommend!

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for a digital ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.

It is 1951, and fifteen-year-old Edie Green is lonely. Living alone with her eccentric mother - who conducts seances for the local Ludthorpe community - she is desperate for something to shake her from her dull, isolated life. When the mayor's daughter befriends her, she thinks life will be better. But then Lucy goes missing.

One Puzzling Afternoon is set in two time periods. 1951 is when Lucy goes missing and is never found. The other period is 2018 and Edie is 82 and dementia is leaving her muddled. It also takes her back to that fateful afternoon in 1951 when Lucy is supposed to meet her at the train station but goes missing.

Edie is very likable, and my heart went out to her as dementia steals more and more of her present. She is an unreliable narrator, though. How much of the past is she clearly remembering?

We are only given snippets of the past. The novel opens with Edie waiting at the train station but the next time we move back to 1951, it is shortly before Lucy and Edie become friends. We pretty much get new information as Edie remembers it in 2018, but with more detail when we go to 1951. That means we don't quite know what happened and there are a couple of top suspects.

The story flows well back and forth between the two time periods. All the characters are interesting and feel real.

I enjoyed Critchley's writing. I've not read her other books - I think this might be her first book for adults. The Bear Who Sailed the Ocean in an Iceberg looks cute so I might have to read it.

If you are looking for a great mystery, I definitely recommend A Puzzling Afternoon. I did start to strongly suspect one of the characters towards the end and turned out to be right, but what I liked most about this novel was Edie's trip down memory lane. I'm really happy that the epilogue was included as it bridges the life Edie was living in 1951 with what we know of how her life turned out by 2018.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Friday - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2023/11/one-puzzling-afternoon-by-emily.html

This is a wonderful book which shows how this tragic disease affects one and how to disturbing to recognize that you are loosing your memory. Hard to out down and thank you to the author.

The premise of the book really grabbed my attention with this line: I kept your secret Lucy. I've kept it for more than sixty years . . .

This book tells the murder mystery of events that happened during 1951 when Edie was just 15. Today in 2018 she is 84 and finds her memory not what it used to be. She believes she is seeing her childhood friend Lucy looking the same as she did back then. Then remembers there was a secret but can’t remember what it is. This story is an emotional mystery. I really enjoyed the character of Edie. The story was a great read- mysterious and captivating. Many thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

It is 1950 Edie Green is a lonely 15 year old girl. She gets befriended by the most popular girl in school, Lucy, and must keep her secret that she discovered. One day Lucy goes missing and her disappearance is still troubling Edie 67 years later.

It is 2018 and Edie is experiencing symptoms of dementia and she feels that if she solves her friend’s disappearance, she can prove to her family that she doesn’t have to move out of her home. Then Edie starts remembering…

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It turned out darker than I expected, but that is not a bad thing. Parts of it were on the slow side but if you’re looking for a solid mystery, this is it.

This was a beautiful and heartbreaking story. I was hooked in finding out what happened to Lucy, and I liked that it was revealed in dual timelines.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Edie is feeling the horrible void of a missing word, thought, moment, more frequently and even more upsetting, she is often aware of her lapses. It is the times when she doesn’t recognize her confusion that is so troubling to her family and ultimately to herself. She believe that if she gives herself a brief rest, has a cup of teas, it will all come back to her. She knows she must keep a secret - one that she has harbored for almost seven decades to protect her best friend. But are there other secrets which Edie is holding close? If only she could find Lucy - everything would make sense, everything would be fine. But where is Lucy?

There is then - 1951 when Edie was a schoolgirl sworn to secrecy about so many things - it was more than a young girl should have to shoulder. There is the present of 2018 - Edie is an octogenarian, still keeping those secrets which are threatening to surface as her memory is disintegrating. Her moments of clarity are fraught with confusion, distress, some humor and a stubborn determination to solve a very old mystery. If only she could find Lucy.

Told with an even, compassionate and honest look at the progression of dementia, Ms. Critchley has written a very well crafted mystery within a heartbreaking story. Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for a copy.

This was the first book I have read by Emily Critchely. I always love a good puzzle mystery read so when I saw this book I wanted to see what it was all about. This was a good murder mystery with dual timelines. I thought this book had a good flow to it and had you feeling like you were a detective. This was definitely a fun read. I would recommend this if your looking for a good murder mystery.


Thank you NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for allowing me to read this ARC for my honest opinion.

One Puzzling Afternoon is a wonderfully, sensitive, beautifully told story in which the main character, Edie, in the early stages of dementia tries to remember something she knows was very important which happened to her best friend Lucy back in 1951. This riveting read which flashes back to that mysterious day, and what led up to it, to the present day which in this case is 2018, follows Edie’s desperate journey as she tries to put the pieces of the puzzle together as to what happened to Lucy before her crumbling memory makes it impossible.

As 84-year-old Edie walks down the street, she suddenly sees a young girl who looks exactly like her best friend from when they were teenagers. She knows it’s her! But her best friend Lucy would be the same age as Edie, so she is confused. But that sighting sets Edie on an incredibly difficult adventure.

Edie realizes she knows something about Lucy which no one else knows. But for the life of her she can’t remember what it is. Lucy disappeared one afternoon back in 1951 and was never seen again. There were so many theories on what happened to her, but Edie for some reason feels they are all wrong.

So, Edie tells her family about Lucy, although she knows she’s confused while explaining the story. Her family feels Edie is just confused as she has just been diagnosed with dementia and is forgetting quite a great deal. So much so she can’t really live alone anymore, and they are selling her house and buying one so she can live with them.

Growing up in 1951 Edie was a teased teenage girl with no friends whose father had died and whose mother did the best she could to make money. She worked as a psychic with Edie’s help and that was frowned upon back in the day. And then when her mother remarried, Edie’s life was made even more miserable by this overbearing man who had such distain for her.

And then for some reason Lucy Theddle, a popular, beautiful, rich girl became her friend…and her world changed! They were inseparable and told each other all their secrets. Well Lucy told Edie. And then something happened. And Lucy was just gone.

And now it’s up to Edie to figure out what happened that day. She remembers parts, but not all and what she remembers is jumbled. One thing for sure, she knows she promised Lucy she would never tell. But what was it she was not supposed to tell? What does Edie know?

For Edie, she knows it’s a race against time to figure this out and without the support of her family she just hopes she’ll be able to do this for Lucy before all is forgotten.

One Puzzling Afternoon is a unique story which looks at what happens when someone’s brain begins to fail them, and the despair of their family as they try and navigate a situation which will never get better, only worse.

Thank you #NetGalley #Sourcebooks/Landmark #OnePuzzingAfternoon #EmilyCritchley for the advanced copy.

This book was not at all what I thought it was going to be. By the title and cover, I was thinking light-hearted cozy mystery. I guess I should have paid a bit more attention to the description? The mystery was good and I liked the juxtaposition of the 1951 and 2018 timelines, but Edie's progressing dementia and Lucy's affair were definitely not light-hearted fare.

So this was an interesting one. I had a really hard time getting into it at first and struggled for the first hundred pages or so. I really can't put my finger on why either. Something wasn't clicking for me and I'm not really sure what? But after that, I did read the rest of the book in a day so I guess it clicked for me after all?

This was such an interesting concept for a mystery. Pretty much all of the pieces were internalized in the main character so there wasn't really any ~outside sleuthing. It was more just internal monologue and letting the reader in through flashbacks. It was really interesting.

Though. I've known several people with dementia and they all remembered their childhood/younger years perfectly. So I thought it was pretty weird that Edie couldn't remember what happened to Lucy? Especially since that was such a traumatic and formative event in her life. Unless she just blocked it out as she got older so she wouldn't remember? Idk. I get that for this whole story to work, she had to forget. But just based on what I know of dementia, it just seemed strange.

But I will say, the dementia slide was INCREDIBLY well done and so hard to read. As Edie continued to forget, this got harder and harder to read. Dementia has always absolutely terrified me and seeing it from the inside is always such a jarring experience. This captured that SO WELL and by the end of this book I was both frustrated and completely heartbroken.

As for the mystery: it wasn't exactly groundbreaking but it was interesting. It was pretty easy to guess where this was going and the reveal wasn't particularly shocking. It was more the journey getting there that was interesting.

All in all, this was an interesting concept. It wasn't my favorite but it was enjoyable (well, kind of). If you're looking for a mystery to cozy up with this winter, pick this up!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review!

One Puzzling Afternoon is Emily Critchley's new novel. I quite liked the cover, it looks like a puzzle.

Edie Green is fifteen years old when we meet her in 1951. She's waiting for her friend Lucy at the train station. But Lucy never shows up - anywhere. Now, in 2018, Edie is 84, and she's certain she has seen Lucy. She needs to find her. But...

"It's there at the back of my mind, a persistent, anxious flutter, like a moth trapped under glass: there is something I should know, something I need to remember."

Critchley had given us an unreliable narrator in Edie. It's heartbreaking to watch and listen to Edie trying to hold on to her thoughts and memories before they are gone. Dementia has touched my family and I think Critchley has done a wonderful job portraying this insidious condition, from not just Edie's point of view, but from her family and friends as well. There's a good cast of supporting players. I quite liked her granddaughter Amy.

And then there's the mystery of whatever happened to Lucy. Can Edie hang on to her memories long enough to find the clues? I had an inkling about what the final pages might bring us, but I was only partially right - and surprised at the rest.

One Puzzling Afternoon is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. A wonderful read on so many levels.

4.25⭐️

Edie Green May hold the key to what happened to her childhood friend Lucy. The problem is, at 84 years old, she’s dealing with dementia. So, she can’t remember just what it is she knows. But she’s sure there’s something…..

This is an enjoyable mystery with a twist, as it gives us a unique view into the mind of someone suffering from dementia. I found myself occasionally confused right along with Edie, feeling much of what she must be feeling. It was both engaging and at times hard to read- but all the more worthwhile for it.

Thank you Emily Critchley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

I received a gifted copy of I received a gifted copy of ONE PUZZLING AFTERNOON by Emily Critchley – thank you to the author and Sourcebooks!

ONE PUZZLING AFTERNOON follows Edie over two different timelines. In 2018, Edie is 84 years old and dealing with some form of dementia. Her memory comes and goes and many details get lost. She has the support of her family, but she wants to maintain her independence as well. When she sees a young girl outside of the post office, she recognizes her as someone she knew sixty years prior. No one really believes what she saw, but it begins to uncover memories for Edie of her friend Lucy who went missing years ago and it leads her to investigate.

In 1951 timeline, Edie is a young woman with a complicated home life. When Lucy and Edie become friends, it seems an odd pairing, but it turns out that Lucy has secrets of her own that she trusts Edie to keep. The story follows both timelines with Edie working her way back through her hard to grasp memories in the present and the time leading up to Lucy’s disappearance in the past.

I really wound up enjoying this book and I really liked Edie as our main character. I really felt for her struggle to maintain independence and I think the author captured her memory issues well in a way that worked with the suspense of the story while also feeling natural. I really liked Edie’s fierce loyalty to her friend and her search for answers.

The story does go into some dark and potentially triggering areas, so I would suggest looking into trigger lists if that is a concern. I did really love the story overall and how it played out! ONE PUZZLING AFTERNOON is available now!

Memories can sustain us, or alternately they can injure our psyche to such an extent that we can bury them deep. Such was the case with Edie Green. At the tender age of sixteen Edie's friend goes missing. Edie knows what happened, yet she cannot divulge the circumstances. She MUST keep Lucy's secret.

Now, Edie is eighty-two and suffering from the early stages of dementia. She is frustrated daily by the loss of her memories and laments her loss of independence. A former English teacher, Edie now forgets how to spell certain words - even forgets the words for everyday objects. Her son, daughter-in-law, and beloved granddaughter want her to move with them to Devon where she will live in a 'granny annex'. Edie doesn't want to leave the town where she grew up and the house where she has spent her entire married life. Now widowed and alone, Edie's grasp on everyday routines is slipping. One day she 'sees' her friend Lucy in town. Lucy has not aged at all... Edie's mind is playing tricks. It is this sighting that spurs Edie to try to discover what happened to Lucy all those years ago. Does she know? Has her mind hidden the truth from her all this time?

Written in dual timelines, this novel was poignant and I felt for Edie's plight. Her tenuous grasp on her memories, and her confusion about how her life is playing out, seemed very real. Let's face it, we all know of someone who is suffering from this terrible disease and it is an eye-opener to experience it from the perspective of one who is coping with it from the 'inside' as it were.

It was interesting to note just what can spur memories to return. A certain smell? A word? A taste?

In the 1950s timeline, we come to realize that Edie's early life was traumatic. She lost her beloved father in a drowning accident right after the war. Her mother was eccentric, had a history of mental illness, and had aspirations of a higher social class. Meanwhile she held seances as a way of earning some much needed income. Then, Edie's mother remarried. Reg, Edie's new step-father, was an odious man.

Part mystery (what happened to Lucy?), part family drama, this novel vividly captured the conflicting emotions of a person suffering from dementia. The story was slow-paced, empathically rendered, and the dual time line plot was well done. I can confidently recommend this book as a novel that will remain in your memory for some time.