I picked this up in a second-hand bookshop years ago. I’ve previously read¹ The Winter House by Nicci Gerrard but I’ve also read numerous mysteries by Nicci French which are co-written by the same author. I wanted to like this.

The story concerns Eleanor Lee, now blind and in her nineties, and Peter, a young man who she employs to help her sort out the various books and papers in the family home before she moves to a care home. She’s clearly looking for something that she can no longer see to find and slowly she reveals a story from her youth to Peter.

My partner picked it up and said that the plot synopsis sounded like Catherine Cookson; I’ve never read Catherine Cookson (and nor has he). At the time he said that to me I said, maybe, but I think it’s going somewhere Catherine Cookson wouldn’t go. Having finished it, I suspect we’re doing Cookson the injustice. The story ended up being pretty standard. Well told on the whole, with interesting characters but I wanted it to have been a more interesting plot. The complexity was resolved pretty easily and I expected more of the author really.