Member Review by Alex Rosel
Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
This novel is beautifully written making it an easy, interesting and intriguing read. It
takes on a well-versed theme - that of an individual on a private crusade to solve a
mystery, usually a murder - and approaches it from a perspective that was entirely
new to me. Accordingly, the usual storyline clichés that tend to inhabit the broad plots
of this genre still appear, but they have a refreshing new slant that is designed to
challenge the reader.
Maud, the person around which the story revolves, is an eighty-two year old woman
living alone and increasingly suffering from dementia. Forced to keep her
contemporary memories written randomly on pieces of paper, her mind struggles to
make sense of a world where her best friend, Elizabeth, has gone missing and nobody
else seems to be concerned. Alongside this conflict, a dual timeline runs throughout in which a twelve year
old Maud has to deal with the trauma of her elder sister going missing in the upheaval of postwar Britain.
The author manages the transitions between timelines well, albeit in a formulaic manner, and I never felt any
disconnect. However, young Maud's story was eminently more gripping for me. The elderly Maud's journey
was well-observed, highly believable and poignant, but didn't progress with any pace, often seemingly going
round in circles for no better reason than to maintain a balance between the two plot threads. For example,
there is a point, well into the book, where the elderly Maud is tested for cognitive function. By this point, it is
already obvious to the reader that Maud has severe memory loss problems and it all seemed a bit pointless
to me as nothing was really conveyed by this scene that drove the plot forward. In contrast, the younger
Maud's life is embroiled in interesting sub-plots; a somewhat secretive lodger, the dubious nature of her older
sister's husband, an inexplicable mad woman who roams the streets, and a tension between her parents; all
make her tale much more amenable to an entertaining read. I often found myself resenting the word count
wasted on reiterating the older Maud's plight, finding it distracting from the real mystery that gave the book
its raison d'etre.
Of course, the two timelines coalesce at the denouement and the story is brought to a satisfactory ending only I didn't find it that convincing. The entire credibility of the conclusion hinges on a few sentences given in
the brief prologue. As I've written before, I tend to dislike prologues. They may make perfect sense to the
author, who already has the book's schema fully outlined in their mind's eye, but for the reader, uncovering
details in a series of steps, the disjointed information given in the prologue can easily be forgotten before its
significance is realised - and so I think it is in this instance. I didn't make full sense of the ending until I reread
the prologue. It's a storyline structure that I continually find annoying.
Taken as a whole, this is a delightful book. I enjoyed the seemingly irrelevant asides that the author included,
such as Elizabeth's penchant for majolica ware - these almost throwaway facts add something that many
authors overlook - and I think I would gain something new if and when I get around to giving it another read.
I rate it with four stars out of five.
Thank you to the person who originally proposed it as a book of the month.