Thoroughly enjoyed this listen. Linda's character developed very nicely, becoming more and more interesting up until the end. This was my first book from Joanna Cannon but I will now look into other books from this author.
An easy, funny and interesting read, that I definitely recommend!
Thanks for the opportunity to listen to this ARC.

This is one cleverly executed piece of writing; you think at first it’s one type of book but then it morphs into another…highly recommend!

I’ve read and adored all of Joanna Cannon’s previous novels so this new one was on my highly anticipated list for this year and I’m so pleased to say that I loved it! It follows Linda who is a bit socially awkward and who tries a bit too hard to be liked. She’s married to Terry who doesn’t show much respect for their home when he tracks dirt through the house after work, or respect for Linda when he spends his time picking his teeth in front of the TV. Linda becomes obsessed with finding out about Rebecca, the woman who lived in the house before them. She imagines what Rebecca’s life is like based on the catalogues that still arrive for her. This is all in the wake of a series of murders that have happened close to Linda and Terry’s street and seems to be a way of distracting Linda from the reality of what is going on. This novel is so good, it’s full of heart but also darkness. It’s funny and sad in equal measures but it’s such a page-turner. I had my suspicions of what was going on and it was brilliant reading to see if I was right and how it would all play out. This book is so good and I highly recommend it.

This was a really intriguing read with so many twists and turns its hard to wite a review without giving any major plotlines away.

Linda is a great character, she works at a charity shop sorting the donations not trusted to work the till or even be front of the shop. A little odd and almost childlike and innocent in her interactions with people including her mother, oblivious to what people mean when they speak with her, often taking things quite literally. When women start to go missing and murdered the whole town starts pointing fingers and being suspicious but Linda seems to be more obsessed with becoming friends with the woman who used to live in her house.

It was hard to put this down as there were so many strands of strylines out of my grasp until the very end. A fantatsic twist and resolution. Cannon's witing style pulls you in from the very beginning and creates sympathetc and believable characters.

To be honest, the mystery of this is not 'who did it' because it's easy to guess fairly early on who is responsible for the murder of four young women, and I was feeling rather smug when I read the last line that confirmed my guess.

What keeps you glued to the pages are the characters, the twists and turns that foil the police and just about every other character who think they know who the culprit is, but are wrong. So, so wrong.

The main character is a compound of recognisable traits: everyone knows someone with one of them. She's quiet, has been moulded by a tragic event in her childhood, is (seemingly) submissive, patient, dutiful, thorough, slightly OCD, desperately eager for friendship, and….clever. We all know someone with at least one of those qualities. Though, perhaps not one with all of them.

The author presents a totally unforgettable and quite mesmerising character. Brilliantly done. In fact, all the characters are brilliantly observed and together they make for an engaging and riveting read. Absolutely terrific.

A Tidy Ending is another fantastic novel from Joanna Cannon who has the ability to write the most amazing darkly comical novels full of plot twists and intriguing characters. Linda is married to Terry and works in a local charity shop. She has her own unique way of looking at the world and is very interested in what’s going on around her. When several women are murdered in her neighbourhood, suspicion falls on several people and brings back memories of her childhood and accusations against her father.
Linda is an amazing character and is so well written with her individual quirks and autistic traits. The people who are dismissive of her do so at their own cost.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. I have chosen to write this honest review voluntarily.
This the first book I have read by this author, and it is completely different to anything I've ever read before. There are comical moments, times when things that Linda is thinking made me feel very sorry for this lonely woman, and then a part of the story twists to something so dark I wanted to hide with the curtains closed! It is completely unique with a very clever twist at the end, absolutely brilliant! I've signed up to follow this author after reading this book.

The balance of A Tidy Ending feels wrong. Really very little happens once we are introduced to the handful of characters, and then the last part, when things finally start to develop, seems rushed.

The novel itself is a first-person account of a socially awkward person who seems infeasibly sheltered. Someone in their thirties who has never used the internet and calls their parent Mother (with a capital M) seems a bit dubious and cliched respectively.

Also, the narrator juxtaposes incredible social naivety with quite telling remarks about people and society in general. Perhaps she's not as stupid as she seems, but as this is a first-person account, with access to her inner thoughts, then who is she fooling? I think personally the plot would have worked better in the third person.

This book reminded me of some of Ruth Rendell's work, especially the Barabara Vine novels, another author who likes to write about outsiders and misfits.

I felt there was quite a good book in here, but it didn't quite click for me.

I have been intrigued by Joanna Cannon's novels so far, particularly 'The Trouble with Goats and Sheep' and 'Three Things about Elsie', both of which were inventive, unusual and fun to read. 'A Tidy Ending' shows another take on a murder investigation, looking through the eyes of a local witness from the dual perspectives of the unfolding crimes and looking back from the present day. It's a very clever device and manages to deflect and encourage a variety of possibilities, keeping the reader guessing - with their own changing views - to the very end. I enjoyed the way the central character, Linda, is drawn. She appears a simple, ordinary housewife who has little of interest apart from a rather murky family history, but she gradually extends her world beyond her rented house and her provincial concerns. I found her not particularly likeable, but was fascinated by her progress throughout the investigation, and was keen to know what had really happened. A neat and cleverly written book that kept me reading to the last page.

I loved Joanna Cannon’s first book, ‘The Trouble with Goats and Sheep,’ and this has some of the same tones – a small neighbourhood, seemingly ordinary lives put under close observation, dark humour and character driven narrative. But I’m afraid I didn’t get on with this one as well as her first, though I recognise the author’s skill in her creation of Linda, her central character.
Linda is a woman who yearns for more, tempted by the glamourous lives depicted in magazines. She is socially awkward, unhappily married and without friends. Cannon gives us an unreliable narrator who has a unique and interesting voice but she peoples Linda’s world with characters who treat her with disdain and cruelty. There is little kindness.
I found myself wanting Linda’s story to be different. Her fascination with local murders didn’t do it for me. I found that strand implausible. All I could see was a woman in trauma – suffering from deeply disturbing childhood events who, as a result, is psychologically damaged. I wanted to see her begin to resolve this and slowly learn to make friendships. Maybe she could teach others a thing or two about inclusion and kindness whilst she’s at it! She’s a wonderful creation but, for me, she was in the wrong story.

I've read all Jo's books so far but I think this one may just be my favourite. It's the kind of book that stays with you, partly because of the delightfully portrayed characters, partly because of the slightly sinister undertones running throughout and finally because the ending really is so neat and tidy yet I didn't see it coming. All in all a wonderful story showing great psychological insight. Reader beware - there may well be a Terry and LInda living in your street!

This is the tale of Linda, her uninspiring husband and her beige life. Except there's actually an awful lot going on under the surface of her daily chores, the endless hoovering and cleaning of her house on a nondescript estate. For a start, a local murderer is on the loose. Then there's Linda's mother and the backstory she and Linda are trying ever so hard to leave behind. And just what is Terry, Linda's husband, up to for those long hours when he's not at home?
There are plenty of mysteries already brewing, but then Linda decides to create a few more, when her curiosity about her house's previous occupant gets the better of her.
The language and the wry humour in this book are brilliant; pure joy. But then Cannon really goes to work on the plot and creates a very Tidy (but also rather twisty) Ending. As Linda would say, things are not always what they seem.

I do enjoy stories with an unreliable narrator and this was full of hints and things not being as they seem. But I found it very slow in places. The ending was rather contrived and I didn't find it completely convincing. But the author did a great job of getting into the mind of Linda.

I am a big fan of Joanna Cannon and she’s one of my favourite authors for profound, honest and beautifully written depictions of the human condition. She also treats her readers to a mystery and I couldn’t wait to unravel this one through a unique, compulsive character.

Linda fled her childhood home in Wales with her mother years ago and she now lives a quiet life with her husband Terry. Bored with her simple life, Linda starts to fantasise about the glamorous life that the house’s previous occupant Rebecca must live, according to the glossy magazines that still get posted through the door. Maybe if she could find Rebecca and make friends with her, that lavish lifestyle could become hers and she could distract herself from the fact that Terry has started working strange hours at exactly the same time that local young women are going missing. But is Linda really cut out to be like Rebecca and can any secret stay buried forever?

Cannon is so good at writing mundane, relatable scenes and musings on what normal life really is. Linda’s life is very pedestrian and she knows it. It’s easy to see how she could long for something different and a bit more excitement. The local murders add that and much like many of her neighbours, Linda becomes thoroughly enthralled with the investigation.

Terry didn’t make much of an impression on me at first. He is a quiet, ordinary man and even Linda doesn’t seem to take much notice of him. Their marriage is very much a typical long-term one. While she clearly gets frustrated with him very easily, there is definitely a fondness there. Many readers will see either their own relationship or a couple that they know in Linda and Terry.

Linda’s mother is a prominent character, who will definitely remind you of an older woman in your own life. She and Linda enjoy a close relationship, although it does have a bit of spikiness to it, which I think is down to both of their eccentric personalities. They’ve been through a lot together and I couldn’t shake the feeling that Linda’s mother knew a lot more than she ever said.

Rebecca Finch seems to live a life that is worlds away from Linda’s. She has expensive tastes and a passion for looking good -a persona that Linda apparently has buried inside herself. While I laughed at several of Linda’s comments on changing herself into Rebecca, I found myself getting concerned for her. Linda has a vulnerability and I really wasn’t sure how things were going to play out for her, as she embarked on her crazy quest to befriend the woman she wanted to emulate.

Joanna Cannon is excellent at observing and analysing human behaviour and society. Through Linda’s thought patterns, I questioned and reflected on things I already knew but that I perhaps didn’t realise I knew. It was such a therapeutic, affirming experience and I found so much truth in these lovely, honest revelations. An excellent accompaniment to a mystery that just kept unravelling!

A Tidy Ending is a compelling read with a relatable, very likeable heroine. I thought I had everything figured out (and apparently the characters did too!) and then a twist smacked me in the face out of nowhere in the very last chapter. My jaw definitely hit the floor and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t even had a suspicion of the truth. Full of humour, heart and clever plotting that kept me on my toes, Joanna Cannon has written another fantastic novel that I genuinely struggled to tear myself away from.

The most perfect book, I enjoyed this so much, from the very page I knew it was going to be added to my modern classic favorites - it slips in perfectly next to Rachel Joyce, Kate Atkinson and Nina Stibbe.
While unlike any other books, it has that winning combination of wonderful characters, misdirection, several plots all neatly interlocking and words woven together, so at the end this is so much more than just a story, it is a sheer delight.
Thank you,
Faith Hogan.

A dark and original tale of trauma, suspicion and the ripple created by a murder in a tiny neighbourhood. A bored housewife escaping a mysterious past, a mother who could have birthed Norman bates and a husband reminiscent of a weirdly distant Homer Simpson, this cocktail gives you a very weird mixture , you are not sure of the taste at first and are left confused trying to guess the undernotes but can’t stop drinking it knowing it might become your drink of choice… a really refreshing and creepy must read!

Great page Turner from the very beginning. The story grips u and your hooked. Thanks netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced copy.

I love Joanna Cannon! Her first two novels (The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, Three Things About Elsie) are two books I really loved, so I was excited to read her third novel as soon as I could get my hands on a copy – and A Tidy Ending didn’t disappoint!
Joanna writes with such sensitivity that you see the characters unfold across the pages, layer by layer. She finds the little nuances and idiosyncrasies in people’s behaviour and shows us their strengths and weaknesses in a way which makes them incredibly real, often in a heart-breaking manner. Joanna’s observation of people is second to none; she picks out a little gesture or comment that says so much.
Her writing style itself is beautiful – clever enough to sound almost poetic at times, but never out of reach to the average reader – beautiful, yet accessible. There’s a lot of wit in the pages too, so many clever bits that made me smile. (She seems to have met my mother too, ha ha!) There’s also plenty to pull at the heart-strings - the dinner party chapter was an especially moving piece of writing.
As for the story - Linda is 43 and lives with her husband Terry, who is 45. From the outside looking in, they seem to have a normal kind of marriage and live in a normal kind of house, but as we see inside, the cracks and fault lines are obvious. Linda is unfulfilled and deeply unhappy, trying to escape from the mundane by doing crosswords and losing herself in the catalogues and brochures that arrive at her house addressed to the previous occupant Rebecca Finch. Meanwhile, it appears a serial killer is at large in the neighbourhood.
We find out more about the backgrounds of the main characters. Linda had a very difficult thing to deal with in her childhood and her life since has been scarred by this, as her mother’s. They moved from Wales to try to start again, but Linda explains that things follow you, even if you try to leave them behind.
Linda and Terry both have secrets too. But we all have secrets, right? It doesn’t make us bad people. Or does it?
This book has everything. It’s a bit of a whodunnit, as there’s a crime background to it, but it’s so much more. There’s no-one quite like Joanna Cannon to get deep inside her characters and this is what makes her novels excel over and over again. Another triumph!
9.5 out of 10

Oh my, the delectation that is Joanna Cannon’s writing! It’s warm and witty, beautifully observed and always — ALWAYS — has that little spark of something extra; in this instance, a vaguely sinister undercurrent that teases and taunts before exploding to the surface in a triumphant burst of ‘gotcha!’

At the heart of the story is 43 year-old Linda, who lives a life of quiet, repetitive domesticity that revolves around husband Terry (who’s been disappearing a lot lately), visits to Mother, and her part-time job in a local charity shop. It’s a sad, boring existence that Linda endures stoically while indulging in little flights of fancy about imaginary ‘friends’. Then two things happen that bring unrivaled excitement into her life: an unexpected ‘friendship’, and a spate of murders in her local community.

A Tidy Ending is character-driven narrative at its most sublime. It is also cleverly manipulative, with a dual narrative that points you in one direction while leading you somewhere else entirely.

In the present, we’re with Linda in some kind of institution, most likely a psych facility, while the second timeline describes the events that have led up to this current situation.

First off, let me say how much I adored the character of Linda. She’s so intricately drawn, so imperfectly human, it’s like she’s stepped from the pages and sat down beside you. She’s an oddity; one of those people you humor but keep at arm’s length. Someone who’s always on the fringes, an outsider looking in.

As a reader you feel sorry for her, embarrassed at her needy, eccentric behavior. But you care for her too, because she’s perceptive and witty and makes you laugh. And as her story unfolds, and she worms her way into your heart, you start to fear for her gullibility, because her new friends — why can’t she see how horrible they are! — are taking advantage of her.

The eponymous ‘tidy ending’ to this tale is exactly that — a neat wrapping up events, including the murders. But it’s the manner of the packaging that is so breathtaking — the bells, whistles, bows and ribbons that turn the story on its head and leave you both speechless with disbelief and giddy with delight.

Another triumph of a novel from Jo Cannon, and a warning: never, ever judge a person by appearances!

I have never read a book by this author before, although I do have The Trouble With Goats And Sheep. I don’t think I’ve ever ‘met’ a character as strong as Linda. One of those who made me feel like many of the other characters felt. A little uneasy, fearful and at times lost for words. The only other who was anywhere near a match for her was her mother.

Linda is very needy. She sees an acquaintance who she might exchange a few words with as a best friend with a lot in common. She doesn’t see that the acquaintance could see this as intimidation and is baffled when they give her the cold shoulder. When I got to know her and learnt more about what happened in her childhood I could understand why she was this way. She was just a very lonely woman, married to a man she didn’t seem to like that much and an extremely vocal and controlling mother.

The serial killer storyline was only in the background, all of the focus was on Linda and her need to be best friends with somebody. It was easy to see that the people she chose were just using her and laughing at her. What was less easy to see was that Linda was also aware of this and was more than capable of looking after herself. This was an aspect of the storyline that I completely missed and I need to read the book again at some point.

It is one of those books that on finishing you wonder what you have read. I had to think about it for a few hours, analysing the different characters. All I can say at this point is that I’m relieved I don’t know anybody like Linda.