A Tidy Ending: The latest dark comedy from the Sunday Times bestselling author

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Linda’s inner monologue is filled with insightful observations: “There are certain people who make you start to worry when they say there’s nothing to worry about. Doctors, for example, and often accountants. But especially police officers. When a police officer tells you there’s nothing to worry about, you know it’s time to be concerned” and “Because when something extraordinary happens, if you concentrate on the ordinary things instead, it stops you from having to look at it all too closely.” Oh thank you so much Jan! I promise you, that you will love it! Please do let me know what you think! X

Joanna Cannon creates a world that is so real, so parochial & stifling you can feel it. Then adds in a killer. Glorious’ Jane FallonIn a Nutshell: Outlier review alert! Strongly mixed feelings, but the ending was too farfetched for me to relish the overall book. I started off with 4.5 stars and my rating kept steadily dipping as I progressed through the book. This is the third book I have read by this author and have really enjoyed all of them. The other two books ‘The Trouble With Goats and Sheep’ and ‘Three Things about Elsie’ were great reads and this one was another one at the same level. Well written novel with excellent characters and a really entertaining read.

I'm not a fan of novels featuring characters like Linda; she is socially awkward, perhaps on the spectrum; she doesn't get inside jokes, sarcasm or pay attention to body language. She noticed something at the press conference, when they put up a picture of the victim, but Terry had already said the police hadn’t got a clue and switched the channel. Linda is an interesting character. Initially she may not appear so but there is more going on under that tatty blue quilted house coat than it appears. Her husband, Terry, is an irritant. He is messy, uncaring and leaves her notes telling her what to do. She has no friends, and her mother is all show but no real use. She was always much closer to her father, and she misses that. She has an ingrained distrust of the police after they did what they did to him. Thoroughly absorbing with an expertly drawn and engaging protagonist. The suspense hums beneath the surface until the satisfying conclusion. Highly recommended." - Olivia Kiernan

Lately, there have been too many books on dysfunctional characters with mental health issues, so a book needs to have something special to make it stand out. This one didn’t do anything for me. I feel that I might have liked this book slightly more if I had read it, but I doubt it would have been a 5 star read for me even then. It was more tedious than tidy for me. A Tidy Ending is a delectable, engrossing and darkly humorous tale, featuring as its unlikely heroine the middle-aged and deceptively introverted Linda. This reading group guide for A Tidy Ending includes an introduction, discussion questions, and ideas for enhancing your book club. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book. Linda Hammett keeps herself to herself though always tries to be helpful. How do others view her? She’s married to Terry and let’s just say he fills the space but fulfils little else. She dreams of the life she’s seen in catalogues rather than the mundane worn things they possess. When another girl goes missing in the area in which she lives the whole neighbourhood gets caught up in the drama and a net of suspicion is cast. Linda tells her story from Then (six weeks ago) to Today. As she tells her tale the big question is, just how reliable a narrator is she? Only time will tell. Linda could easily be described as one of those women. She is married to Terry, and her life is now best described as one of routine and mundanity. While Terry goes out to work, Linda splits her time between looking after their house and working part time in a local charity shop. So far so unremarkable.