The Other Mrs Walker
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year.
The Other Mrs Walker is the beguiling debut from Mary Paulson-Ellis, for fans of Kate Atkinson and Sarah Waters.
Somehow she'd always known that she would end like this. In a small square room, in a small square flat. In a small square box, perhaps. Cardboard, with a sticker on the outside. And a name . . .
An old lady dies alone and unheeded in a cold Edinburgh flat on a snowy Christmas night. A faded emerald dress hangs in her wardrobe; a spilt glass of whisky pools on the floor.
A few days later a middle-aged woman arrives back in the city she thought she’d left behind, her future uncertain, her past in tatters.
She soon finds herself a job at the Office for Lost People, tracking down the families of those who have died neglected and alone.
But what Margaret Penny cannot yet know, is just how entangled her own life will become in the death of one lonely stranger . . .
'One of the strongest debuts of the year' Herald
'Full of twists and turns' Independent
'A wonderful, inventive debut . . . I can't wait to see what this author has up her sleeve next' Fanny Blake, Daily Mail
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Set in Edinburgh and London, in the past and present, this seductive novel pulls you into the stories of “all the lonely people”—or at least a number of them. Margaret Penny, age 37, arrives at her estranged mother’s dreary council flat with her tail between her legs and finds a job investigating the death of an old woman with no known relatives. The Other Mrs Walker is not a cheery tale, but it’s so well-written and atmospheric that it’s a pleasure to read. Fans of Kate Atkinson and Alexander McCall Smith will relish the opportunity to piece together the multiple mysteries surrounding the novel’s characters, who bear the scars of a lifetime of living.
