Jewell thrusts forward a series of likely suspects and more than a few red herrings. Joey quickly develops an infatuation and makes a series of libido-driven decisions that will come to haunt her.Īnd then, of course, there’s a murder. Tom is the town’s favorite, kind to all, admired and adored by parents (especially the mothers) and students (we’ll meet an intriguing and suspicious handful). Joey remembered as a child longing for a house on the hill, and she basks in her good fortune, not to mention the newlywed glow whenever Alfie is around.īut that glow turns to a searing fire when she meets a neighbor, Tom Fitzwilliam, handsome headmaster of the local high school.

Meandering spirit Joey Mullen has just married Alfie, a good-natured hunk she met on holiday, and her successful brother Jack and his pregnant wife Rebecca have agreed to take them in. Jewell’s setting is Melville Heights, an exclusive neighborhood on a hill overlooking gray and foggy Bristol. It’s a thrilling trifecta, not conducive to “read a few pages and fall right to sleep.” In her latest mystery, bestselling author Lisa Jewell combines the cloistered charm of a small English village with the curiosity, paranoia and nosy fatalism of “Rear Window.” Then comes a dose of lust and lies and the sinister pursuit of “Fatal Attraction.” His diary is thoughtful, entertaining and wise. Still, the Old But Not Dead club continues its escapades, someone is stashing fruit in illicit places all around the home just to be annoying, and the book’s darkness is leavened with moments of hilarity.įortified with alcohol, friendship, his diary and, eventually, a dose of antidepressants, Hendrik makes it to his 86th year, old but not yet dead. The staff at the care home has changed, and the home itself is threatened with closure. The winter in Holland is a “horror winter,” with record cold.

Hendrik is older and sadder, his health a little more frail. “On the Bright Side” opens two years later. In the first book, he and his buddy Evert formed “The Old But Not Dead” club, in which select residents of the home planned monthly outings at restaurants and museums. He also has strong regrets, enjoys a few drinks and some practical jokes, and seriously dislikes growing old.

He is funny, thoughtful and curmudgeonly. And Hendrik is plenty credible his voice never falters. It’s not clear who wrote them - the author has kept his (or her) name private, perhaps to give Hendrik more credibility. Hendrik is a fictional character and the “diaries” are novels in diary form. I fell in love with the 83-year-old Hendrik Groen two years ago when his internationally bestselling “secret diary” about life in an Amsterdam old folks’ home was published in the United States. By Hendrik Groen, translated from the Dutch by Hester Velmans.

Bright side book series