One Puzzling Afternoon: Solving a Decades-Old Mystery

One Puzzling Afternoon by Emily Critchley was published in 2023.

Our Sleuth: Edie Green Havercroft, a retired teacher, is 82 when she suddenly sees a young girl who went missing 67 years ago. Lucy Theddle was her unlikely best friend and the mayor’s daughter. Is the sighting part of Edie’s growing confusion or is there something Edie knows that can finally crack the case?

The Setting: We’re in Ludthrope, an “average-size town” near the coast in England, following Edie’s story in two timelines – in 1951, when Edie, 15, and Lucy, 16, become friends, and in 2018, when Edie spots Lucy, still wearing her school uniform, near the post office.

The Premise: When Edie insists on investigating Lucy’s disappearance, her son and granddaughter are uncertain whether Edie is slipping into senility or may actually hold the clues to solving the once-sensational case. Edie herself is uncertain why she believes she must find Lucy, but she knows her time to do so is growing short.

My Take: The author uses lyrical writing and the alternating perspectives of Edie at 15 and at 82 to pull us into a mystery that’s ultimately about the choices women felt forced to make in the 1950s. This includes Edie and Lucy as well as Edie’s widowed mother, Lucy’s well-to-do mom, and the girls’ teacher, Miss Munby. The suspense builds as we get closer to the afternoon that changed the girls’ lives and the older Edie’s uncertainty adds to the tension; she is an unreliable narrator and, at times, a not very likable one. But all of the characters here are drawn with complexity, which makes for a satisfying resolution if not a very happy one.

Opening Lines: Prologue, 1951

I stand on the empty platform under the heat of the midmorning sun. The station is on the edge of a small town, and the surrounding fields are full of golden wheat waiting to be harvested. The huge sky stretches wide and cloudless; a clear, hard blue above the patchwork of green and yellow fields. From the station bridge, a few cows can be seen grazing, flicking away flies with their tails. A hand-printed sign advertises Pick Your Own Strawberries. High above me, a starling spins his chatty song.

Very soon these familiar fields and lanes will be combed by police and volunteers. Bodies beating back the wheat, peering under the hedgerows, crawling across the land with their maps and torches, hoping to be the ones who can shed light on the local girl’s disappearance, yet dreading what they may discover.

Heads Up: No physical violence or profanity; tough and mature themes are depicted throughout.

Of Note: I was not aware of this author until I read this book and I’m glad to have found her. My version of the book included a thoughtful discussion with the author, who also works part-time as a librarian at a secondary school in Hertfordshire, England.