Early into this audiobook, I realised it was a thriller/suspense novel and was considering whether to finish it, as I want to take a break from the genre. She doesn’t, of course, because as much as Mother enjoys drama, she has always thought of it as more of a spectator sport.

The bestselling author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep delivers a “compellingly creepy” ( The Guardian, UK) novel filled with unexpected twists about mysterious murders in a quiet neighborhood. Her work as a psychiatrist and interest in people on the fringes of society continue to inspire her writing, and Joanna currently volunteers for Arts for Health, an organisation bringing creative arts to NHS staff and patients. The front is brushed tidy, with all the personality trimmed back, and it’s always covered in a coat of what people would like you to see. Sometimes, it's as though you haven't spoken at all, as if your world or their world are running quite happily side by side, but there isn't any way of moving between one and the other. But the loss of her father has never left Linda; she thinks about him constantly and how his death affected her small family.

Even when I disguised a lie in a wide avenue of truth, she could still manage to find it, because all she had to do was stare at me for long enough and out it would pop and wave at her” and “My mother is a surrogate for other people’s lives, stacking the empty shelves of her mind with nonsense” and “She said it kindly. Linda, is involved in her own quest to track down Rebecca, who lived in the house before Linda and Terry bought it. She flips through the glossy catalogs that arrive in the mail for the house’s previous tenant, Rebecca Finch, and imagines that woman’s glamorous lifestyle.

All the tiny details, all the quiet, unnoticed edges of the world have been taken away, and it’s only when they’re gone you realize how much you depended on them to make sense of everything else. When I do catch sight of myself, stood next to Terry with flowers stuck in my hair, I always think I look surprised.

But people on the estate are becoming uneasy: a young woman’s body was found by the canal, and this is the second one in just a few weeks. And, in new novel A Tidy Ending, she combines complex characterisation and forensic plotting with that same captivating writing style. If only Linda could track down and befriend Rebecca, maybe some of that enviable lifestyle would rub off on her and she wouldn’t have to worry about what Terry is up to. Her fondness for her father despite the dark secret and her complicated relationship with her toxic mother make her more vulnerable in our eyes.

A Tidy Ending is thoroughly absorbing… Cannon carefully unspools this character-driven mystery using the superb storytelling we’ve come to expect from her. Before you decide that this one is not for you, this is not a thriller, or not what I’d consider a thriller. This isn’t a mystery per se, but there are several plot lines I couldn’t wait to see how they would play out. Sometimes, it’s as though you haven’t spoken at all, as if your world and their world are running quite happily side by side, but there isn’t any way of moving between one and the other.

If Linda could just track down Rebecca, who lived in the house before them, maybe some of that perfection would rub off on her. Cannon eludes expectations and defies traditions on her way toward a mind-bending double-whammy finale. When I read “Tidy Endings”, I became annoyed with Linda because nobody is THAT clueless, not even Molly. Cannon’s shrewd characterisation, sparky observations and subtly menacing plot makes this a darkly funny and delightfully sinister read. She soon found herself writing the book that would become her bestselling debut, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep.

Yarwood’s poignant debut is infused with humour, pathos and gastronomic delights in an uplifting novel about friendship, death and how the joy of living can be found in the most unexpected places. Joanna has been interviewed in The Guardian, The Observer, The Sunday Times, The Times, and Good Housekeeping magazine, and her writing has appeared in the Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail, and the Guardian, amongst others. Then someone will have a brainwave and dig out an old school photograph from the loft, one that’s faded and curled where time has eaten into us all, and they’ll climb down from the stepladder and cough and brush the dust from their clothes, and they’ll say, There she is, look, I’ve found her—she’s the one at the back, and they’ll have to point to make it clear: No, no, that one—the one you can’t see very well.He’d probably say, She’s Welsh or She’s five foot nine because Terry doesn’t really deal in anything other than facts. The neighborhood looks different too, but she’s still the same woman and it’s still the same place, and as the past erupts into view, they slowly collide.