Having read Joanna Cannon's other novels 'The Trouble with Goats and Sheep' and 'Three Things about Elsie', I was keen to read this. But I'm still not sure what I think of it!

The characters are once again, wonderful, and there's a charm and air of hope and positivity to the storytelling. But the main premise of the book troubled me. 

Margaret and Derek had a daughter but decades earlier, when she was just nine years old, she went out to play and never came back. No body was ever found but as the years went by, it was assumed she had been abducted and killed. 

I feel very uncomfortable about such a traumatic event being at the heart of what is essentially a light-hearted novel.

But I'll tell you more.

Margaret is struggling on her own. She misses her husband, Derek. Then one day she comes home and finds there's someone waiting for her. They want to ease her grief, but also to help her come to terms with, and solve the mystery of, the disappearance of the couple's daughter, Jeanie.

Revisiting that time, they look back over the events, interrogate the 'clues', and talk to people who were involved. 

It's such a strange mix of a book. The tone is light and humorous, and quirky in the relationship of Margaret and Derek. But having such a serious, terrible and traumatic event for them to investigate didn't sit well with me. So I'm uneasy about saying I'd recommend this book.