"Terry says I'm forever misunderstanding the lyrics, but he doesn't realize that there are always two ways to interpret everything in life."

Some would say I've misunderstood this book and perhaps I have but I can't find any reason to give this book a 4 or 5 star rating. I'll explain.

"Linda has lived in a quiet neighborhood since fleeing the dark events of her childhood in Wales. Now she sits in her kitchen, wondering if this is all there is..."

Linda is described in other reviews as 'quirky' but I can't use this adjective. Linda, is naive, gullible, disingenuous and easily manipulated. I'm not going to say autistic because I have no qualifications to make that statement but I suspect it may be the case. Linda is said to be 43 but she reads a lot older. She can't use the internet, she can't read social cues, she doesn't realise when she's being mocked. Being in Linda's head is incredibly claustrophobic and any sympathy you might have felt for disappears quickly.

I don't mind an unsympathetic, or unreliable narrator but I do need the story to have some kind of pace and believability. So much of this book depends on the reader suspending their belief completely it just doesn't work.

I love Joanna Cannon and all her work to date, both fiction and non, but this was weirdly incredibly hard for me to get into. I wasn't invested in what was happening and whenever I picked it back up, I had lost the thread too much, but that might be more my state of mind while reading. Fingers crossed that her next is more up my alley as this had all the hallmarks of one of her usually fantastic books with characters, intriguing plot premise and British feel, but this just didn't hit the spot for me.

love Linda! She doesn’t know how to behave around other people. She can’t read social cues and just wants to be friends with everyone. She isn't too keen on her husband Terry either. I loved the narrator, I thought she brought Linda to life. The author captured the character so well perhaps its based on someone she knows! It follows Linda as she tries to find out who has been murdering young girls around her estate. It goes back in time to what happened with her father and why she had to leave Wales. It wasn't the kind of book I was expecting and that was just because of the cover. I genuinely didn't realise how the picture on the front can influence your beliefs about a book.

This came with more twists than I was expecting! Linda is a great main character- it's hard to know quite how to feel about her until the end, when everything finally comes together.

Blurb - 'There’s something not quite right about Linda. Her house is ordinary, even though she doesn't feel quite at home. Her husband is ordinary, even if he never notices her. Her life is ordinary, but that just means Linda doesn't have to think about what happened before. Anyway, none of that matters now she has her new best friend Rebecca. Not even when the murders start. And Linda still might be able to get the tidy ending she deserves…'
I have loved Joanna Cannon's previous books so I had high hopes for A Tidy Ending - and loved it. She's one of those authors who should be shouted about, she writes in such a fabulous readable way, taking you to places you may never have expected.
The setting may be domestic and everyday from the outside, but the storytelling and the character development is brilliantly portrayed.

Linda is bored - of her husband, her marriage and her life. Her life has not always been dull but Linda has forever felt ignored or misrepresented. Then a catalogue addressed to the previous homeowner drops through the letterbox and Linda’s life begins to change.

Clever and compelling, with flashes of dark humour. And an ending which sends the reader back wondering what clues they missed . Superb.

Joanna has a really original voice and is a gifted storyteller. I found this a little slow to start but really liked the voice and tone.

Oh my goodness this was brilliant. It wasn't exactly what I expected. Linda was an absolutely entrancing protagonist. I felt totally sucked into her life.
The dark humour and the twists totally captivated me. I am really wary of giving away any spoilers but trust me, it was brilliant.

I loved A Tidy Ending! Joanna Cannon has created a really interesting character in Linda. On the surface, she’s a woman who hasn’t done much with her life - other than marry Terry and work in a charity shop. She begrudgingly visits her manipulative mother more often than she’d like to, and becomes obsessed with the woman who owned her house before she and Terry moved in.

When she tracks Rebecca (the ex-homeowner) down, Linda believes she’s found a new best friend. Rebecca wouldn’t agree with her. And so begins what looks like a story of manipulation and lies. But who is manipulating who? I mean, they’re ALL lying - that’s a given!

Linda is fascinating, her mum is unpleasant, and Terry comes across as underwhelmed by everything except his fishing. No wonder he annoys Linda so much!

There’s a mystery running alongside all of Linda’s relationships - women go missing, and Linda begins to think Terry might be involved.

That’s where I’ll leave the plot, because I don’t want to give anything away. I will say that I just loved the way that Joanna Cannon wrote about the characters in this: confidence tricksters, nosy neighbours, bossy mums, seemingly depressed husbands. A thoroughly good read!

Oooooh this was so good! Dark, funny and wickedly clever. What a bl**dy good writer Joanna Cannon is. I guarantee you won’t see the twists coming! Linda and Terry are married, living on a perfectly average estate. Linda, has a past, an know-it-all mother and a job at a charity shop. Linda is one of those boring put upon types of women who drift through life … that is until she discovers her new best ‘friend’ Rebecca who she is determined to befriend at any cost. In the meantime women are being strangled in the neighborhood and the finger of suspicion isn’t far away… so so good. The last page was everything, chapeau Miss Cannon!

Linda is living an ordinary life in an ordinary area with an ordinary but annoying husband but her interest in the previous owner of her home takes her down an extraordinary path. Not all is as it seems and the story develops slowly as we get to know the unlikeable main character and what exactly is going on. The book started strong but lost me a bit in the middle with too much description that started to labour and felt like it was working too hard to present the mundane existence of Linda's life and her misreadings of the world. It picks up again towards the end as the threads are pulled together but sadly didn't wow. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Somewhat confusing.
Linda does not seem particularly bright, but she has hidden depths.
Some parts of the book are quite amusing, especially Linda's misunderstanding of social situations. When several young women are murdered in the area She lives, her husband Terry is under suspicion.
She is scarred by childhood traumas and the death of her Father. Her Mother is very undermining and interfering.
After moving house Linda discovers the life of the previous tenant and tried to emulate it with surprising results.
For me this book left questions unanswered.

I really enjoyed this book, it, admittedly, wasn't what I was expecting as in it was quite dark at times but overall an enjoyable read that kept me gripped throughout!

What a fantastic book. Joanne reels you in to the life of the desperately lonely, introverted and a little bit odd Linda. Fast paced with small pieces of the past woven through the narrative eloquently, pulling the story tighter. Will read this again as I think I missed some bits as I sped through it.
Highly recommend.

What a fantastic read. Absolutely loved the characters, the storyline and the way it was so beautifully written. It had me hooked from the very beginning. I've read another title from this author which I thoroughly enjoyed and will definitely be interested in others by her.

Highly recommended and well deserves the 5 stars.

Thank you Netgalley.

I loved reading A Tidy Ending. Beautifully written, with characters I didn't want to leave behind at the end of the book. Added to that a tense murder-mystery plot, with dark humour, and a cracking ending. This is the first Joanne Cannon novel I’ve read, and I really enjoyed her writing style and her take on the world.

I have really loved this authors previous work, so I was excited to receive a copy of a Tidy ending. It had a good twist in the tail, which made me look back at what I'd read and think Oh now I see why she did that or this, but it was very unlikely and the protagonist, even though I like an unreliable narrator was very hard to connect with at first, although throughout I could see traits of her in me which, given she is a strange individual I found a little disturbing!
From the start it's clear Linda isn't quite your average person, she is ocd, friendless and some of the things she does seem pointless and bizarre. But there IS a tidy ending and it packs quite a punch.

Sadly my review for this book is really low. I could not gel with Linda the main character. I just disnt like her from the offset and I never warmed to her.
I didn't like the way this book was written. To me it just didn't flow and was very disjointed.
I found no substance to any of the characters.
It was a very far fetched and unbelievable plot.
Its a shame as I had read a book by this author before and enjoyed it, but sadly this one was not for me.

First time reading a book by this author and totally different to my usual read. It's a black comedy that is well written and very funny.

The story, set on typical English housing estate, is about a serial killer named by the papers as The Hexford Strangler! I know this doesn't sound like a comedy but there with it.

In the centre of the story is middle-aged Linda, married to Terry, struck in a rut and a loveless relationship, she also has a part-time job in the charity shop. Suffering OCD Linda mainly spends days cleaning and more cleaning. Throughout the story Linda speaks of how her path in life was determined by her father and an incident in the past, that led to her father's death. As the narrator of the story Linda tells us many times that appearances can be deceptive. Is she really just a boring housewife? If you like a plot with twists and turns and some comedy then this is for you, saying much more would too much away! You'll have to read it yourself.

A Tidy Ending is an intense and, at the same time, a disturbing read. The main character is Linda who lives a dull life with her husband Terry. While Linda is a very interesting and complex character, she is far from likeable. The author does an excellent job of making her someone you’d cross the road to avoid. I enjoyed the elements of dark humour interspersed within the plot.

I struggled to finish the book as I felt it a bit dreary and slow at times. Because Linda is hard for me to relate to, I stopped caring about her life and her future. Unfortunately this one wasn’t a big hit for me.

My thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read this book.