What She Never Told Me – Book Review

What She Never Told Me

Author: Kate McQuaile

Published: 3 March 2016

Reviewed: 18 March 2016

What Milo Saw by Virginia Macgregor

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Copy supplied by Quercus Books in return for an honest review

4 out of 5 Stars

 

Description: 

What do you do when you find out that your whole life could be a lie?
 
I talked to my mother the night she dies, losing myself in memories of when we were happiest together. But I held one memory back and it surfaces now, unbidden. I see a green postbox and a small hand stretching up to its oblong mouth. I am never sure whether that small hand is mine. But if not mine, whose?

Louise Redmond left Ireland for London before she was twenty. Now, more than two decades later, her heart already breaking from a failing marriage, she is summoned home. Her mother is on her deathbed, and it is Louise’s last chance to learn the whereabouts of a father she never knew.

Stubborn to the end, Marjorie refuses to fill in the pieces of her daughter’s fragmented past. Then Louise unexpectedly finds a lead. A man called David Prescott . . . but is he really the father she’s been trying to find? And who is the mysterious little girl who appears so often in her dreams? As each new piece of the puzzle leads to another question, Louise begins to suspect that the memories she most treasures could be a delicate web of lies.

My Thoughts & Review: 

Louise is a fascinating character, there are so many loose ends in her life that she desperately wants to tie up in a neat bow but can’t.  Her mother has just died, she and her husband have split up and she has no idea who her father is.  The death of her mother inspires her to search for where she came from, all the unanswered questions of her childhood can never be resolved now without her mother but she is determined to find out who she really is.

The tangled events from Louise’s past and present make for a compelling read, as a reader you get a feel for the emotion and complicated relationships that this character struggles with trying to understand what uncovers.  The author does well to show the consequences of decisions made by all characters, the impact there is on others as well as Louise.

As Louise searches for her father she makes some startling discoveries that really take until the end to become clear, so many clues are dropped into the narrative, building the anticipation and once the mystery is solved, the story comes to a comfortable ending, a definitive ending, but I will admit that despite having half guessed, the final twist to Louise’s tale caught me by utter surprise.

 

McQuaile’s writing is addictive, she draws the reader in with great use of plot building.  The characters are well detailed and scenes are so well described that you can almost imagine so clearly Ireland in the 1960s, the cottage that Louise inherits and the street with the postbox.  

 

This was a thought provoking read, just how dark does a secret get before you can’t share it with your loved ones?  The massive strain and struggle for women in Ireland in the 1960s with regard to religion, children, jobs and contraception is well referenced here, it’s a harsh reality to think that back then there were few options open to women in the same position as Louise’s mother.  

 

A compelling and riveting read, and one you can become lost in so easily.  Once you start reading this book it’s difficult to put it down, and I would not hesitate to recommend it! 

You can buy a copy of What She Never Told Me here.