The theme of selective ageism is popping up in numerous books currently: the ‘invisibility’ of women of a certain age. Laura Marshall’s new book, A Good Place to Hide a Body takes it to a whole new level though. Here, the reader’s eyes are opened to how the world casts aside older people who it no longer has any use for because these once fit and able-bodied individuals are no longer able to contribute to society in the way they were once used to. We also see how their children now have to parent their own parents – and let me tell you from experience, that’s no easy task!
Blurb:
‘Can you come round?’ Dad says tremulously.
‘Of course. Are you OK? Is it Mum?’
‘No!’ He almost shouts it. ‘Just come quickly. The garden…the…body… we need you, Penny.’
For women of Penny’s generation, being on hand for elderly parents is just part of life. But for Penny, things have become a little more serious…
When she receives a frantic phone call from her parents one night, with express instructions NOT to call the police, Penny rushes over at once. But they haven’t had a fall. They haven’t forgotten their computer passwords. They’ve killed someone. And his body is lying in the garden, right next to the rose bushes.
Everyone is capable of murder. They just need to meet the right person.
My Review:
Penny is a full-fledged, bonafide, card-carrying member of the sandwich generation!
She’s finding that she needs to spend more and more time tending to the needs of her elderly parents Sissy (who’s rather sassy) and Heath. It becomes increasingly clear to her that they’re in dire need of a financial boost, one that she’s not able to give. She’s got her 19-year-old son Zach to worry about, and hasn’t quite recovered from her divorce from his father Martin. She feels rather depleted in all ways!
When her parents stubbornly refuse to downsize, it’s decided that the best idea will be for them to take in a tenant to live in the self-contained basement annex of their dilapidated house. Connor seems charming at first, but of course turns out to be the tenant from hell. Far from being the solution to all of their problems, Penny quickly realizes that she’s welcomed the devil himself into their midst.
And that’s not all she has to worry about. As all the balls she’s been struggling to juggle – her job, navigating her relationship with her son and his growingly apparent issues and trying to deal with an ex who appears to be having his own mid-life crisis – start to crash around her, Penny knows exactly where it all started going wrong. But what can she do about it? Everywhere she turns feels like a dead end, and everyone who she turns to is unable (or unwilling to help).
Have you ever been in a situation that feel so absolutely desperate, with no solution, other than one that is just unthinkable?!
This is a harrowing story, but Laura Marshall injects her own unique brand of (dark) humour throughout, making it unputdownable! I have no doubt that situations similar to these happen more often than we know. I got so angry when Penny approached a lawyer for advice, sure that there would be some reasonable, legal way to resolve their dilemma, only to be told that the law favoured the tenant! What??!! It’s so hard to believe that there are deceitful, evil miscreants out there, who deliberately set out to take advantage of others … but there are! I had to keep reminding myself that this was fiction.
Thank you to Compulsive Readers for the blog tour.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Laura Marshall is the Sunday Times Top Ten and Kindle No. 1 bestselling author of four psychological thrillers. Her books Friend Request, Three Little Lies, The Anniversary and My Husband’s Killer have sold over half a million copies in the UK and have been translated into twenty-five languages. She grew up in Wiltshire, studied English at the University of Sussex and currently lives in Kent with her family. A Good Place to Hide a Body is her first book with Hodder & Stoughton.
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