Book Cover: One Puzzling Afternoon
Editions:Hardcover: £ 14.99
ISBN: 1804181250 / 978-1804181256
Pages: 400
Kindle - Kindle Edition: £ 7.59

A mystery she can't remember. A friend she can't forget.

I kept your secret Lucy. I've kept it for more than sixty years . . .

It is 1951, and at number six Sycamore Street 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 popular, pretty Lucy Theddle befriends Edie, she thinks all her troubles are over. But Lucy has a secret, one Edie is not certain she should keep . . .

Then Lucy goes missing.

2018. Edie is eighty-four and still living in Ludthorpe. When one day she glimpses Lucy Theddle, still looking the same as she did at fifteen, her family write it off as one of her many mix ups. There's a lot Edie gets confused about these days. A lot she finds difficult to remember. But what she does know is this: she must find out what happened to Lucy, all those years ago . . .

Publisher: Zaffre
Excerpt:

Pre order now for release on May 25, 2023.

Reviews:

A wonderful protagonist and a real page turner. Completely captivating.

Louise Hare, This Lovely City

An uplifting, bittersweet story with a page-turning mystery at its heart. A beautifully atmospheric and endearing book.

Freya Sampson, The Last Chance Library

One Puzzling Afternoon has one of the most endearing protagonists in recent crime fiction. A spellbinding novel that enchants and unnerves in equal measure.

Inga Vesper, The Long, Long, Afternoon

A lovely combination of a cracking story and a host of characters you want to reach out and hug.

Jo Leevers, Tell Me How This Ends