RogerBW's Blog

The Something Girl, Jodi Taylor 12 June 2024

2017 thriller and light mystery. Jenny Checkland is married to Russell and has a small daughter. But some people seem determined that she should not be happy.

This doesn't fit genre labels well: on the one hand there's comedic chaos with driving lessons and a biscuit-box full of mealworms, but on the other there's genuine nastiness from the ungodly, and working out what to do about them is a major concern.

To a large extent it's more of the same, which means a certain amount of regression of the confident Jenny at the end of the first book to the unsure of herself Jenny of earlier chapters. There's at least some narrative reason for this, but it does somewhat spoil the happy ending of that earlier story.

The plot is mostly the earlier plot revisited (you can't keep a good villain down) and one should read this mostly for the atmosphere; the atmosphere works very well, particularly in its portrayal of Jenny trying to be something other than cripplingly shy and socially inept.

If you liked the first book, well, this is an extended epilogue. If you didn't like it, this won't win you over. If you haven't read it, start there.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Previous in series: Christmas Past/The Battersea Barricades/The Steam Pump Jump/And Now For Something Completely Different/When Did You Last See Your Father?/Dessicated Water/Markham and the Anal Probing/Little Donkey | Series: Frogmorton Farm

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