This review of Emily Critchley’s dual timeline novel, One Puzzling Afternoon, appeared previously in the November 2023 issue of Historical Novels Review. I was interested in this historical/contemporary novel because of its depiction of age-related memory loss and deft handling of two timelines. (368 pages, Sourcebooks Landmark)
Remembering One Puzzling Afternoon in 1951
Set in 1951 and 2018 in a fictional English village, One Puzzling Afternoon unspools the events leading up to the disappearance of fifteen-year-old Lucy. The story’s told through patchy memories of Lucy’s friend Edie, now that Edie is eighty-two and suffering from dementia. Elderly Edie is suddenly struck by the need to find Lucy to demonstrate to her son that she is still capable of living independently. The reader stays sympathetic to Edie and her mystery-solving mission even while recognizing with growing certainty that Edie has already lost the battle for independence. But however irrational her justification to herself is, her need to know what happened to Lucy has a deeper, emotionally driven source that becomes more compelling as the novel proceeds. Critchley succeeds in depicting Edie’s dementia realistically, with all the inherent frustrations for her and everyone around her, while keeping the reader solidly on Edie’s side.
Character-driven Mystery and a Dangerous Secret
The twisty, emotionally complex, character-driven mystery at the novel’s heart provides page-turning forward momentum. The gentle, loving depiction of Edie, both as a lonely, wounded teenager and slipping adult, adds depth without cliché or oversimplification. Critchley explores the repercussions when a teenager compels a friend to keep a dangerous secret as well as the corroding effect of that promise as it ripples across Edie’s life, however well lived. A passage from the first chapter shows Critchley’s graceful style while introducing both these themes and the central focus on memory: “I…pop one of the tiny disks in my mouth. The taste is sweet and soapy. They remind me of spring flowers and warm days, of cycling down to the sea with the sun on my face, of secret whispers and kept promises.”
To Find a Copy of One Puzzling Afternoon
If you’d like to read One Puzzling Afternoon, here’s the Amazon link. (affiliate)
Or here’s the Bookshop.org link.
Further Reading
If you’d enjoy another character-driven mystery set in England, this one taking place in 1919, you might like to read my review of Charles Todd’s The Cliff’s Edge.