The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan

 

This month I choose The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan.  

Two engaging stories weave together and finally make sense of each other at the end.

It’s a story full of coincidences and improbabilities. There is even a ghost and a couple of love stories. There are mysteries aplenty too. Why was a biscuit tin containing someone’s ashes left on a train? Why is the ghost so angry? How will Laura ever be able to return all of the objects that her former boss found?

Yet it all works beautifully and makes for a very pleasant read.

Anthony Perdew, the original collector of the objects, was a short story writer and interwoven in the text are some of his stories about the objects - many of which actually come very close to the truth.

The characters are charming and in my view well-rounded and believable.

Ruth Hogan keeps you engaged as she outlines the tasks for The Keeper of Lost Things.  

Find your copy here  

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Grandmothers by Salley Vickers

 

The lives of three grandmothers and their grandchildren intertwine.

Each of the three women has her own set of challenges. Their interaction with their grandchildren brings them together. One character isn’t actually a grandmother but plays that role.

The characters are well drawn. The grandmother and the grandchildren are the main characters. The generation in between are more minor players but they are also believable and well-rounded.

It’s an easy read and it’s good to have characters over 50 who are at the same time just like  everyone else and yet feisty enough to survive in the modern world.

Salley Vickers has an easy style. Grandmothers offers a relaxing holiday read but invites you to reflect a little as well.        

Away with the Penguins by Hazel Prior

 

I’m recommending today Away with the Penguins by Hazel Prior

An eccentric old lady decides to investigate a colony of penguins in Antarctica.  

Themes abound. Life for Veronica McCreedy verges on the absurd at times. Both she and grandson Patrick are shocked to find each other. They change each other’s lives. And they are changed and touched by their encounter with the penguins. We discover Veronica’s past as Patrick reads her diaries and as she confesses other details to Terry, one of the researchers.    

Hazel Prior draws her characters well and presents them to us through two very effective first person narratives.   

Find your copy here.