I am actually not sure what to write as a review for this book. At the beginning it seems to be about two elderly women living together with one as the carer of the other. As the story develops it seems that they are co-dependant on each other. At first I sympathised with Ruth who seemed to be badly treated by Muriel, not just as an old woman but for most of their ives but then the story took a darker turn. After a few twists and turns the ending was inevitable I think. A fairly good read and not what I expected at the start of the book.

Muriel and Ruth, Moo and Roo, have been best friends since childhood, spending a large portion of their lives living together. But now they are old, Ruth is caring for Moo when she makes her shocking announcement, that she will die in 72 hours.

I have given this book 3 stars as although it was enjoyable and well written, I just didn’t like the characters. There was noone I felt linked to, or understanding of the character choices. I actively disliked Roo, deceitful and selfish, but both her and Moo are as bad as each other.

The plot behind the characters was interesting and the book is well written in a slightly unusual style which I enjoyed. I didn’t dislike reading the book, just the characters I couldn’t warm to. I do think it might be a marmite read.

I'm not sure what I think about this book. It was well written and the characters were richly drawn - but they just weren't very likeable. The author keeps the reader guessing and the story was dark and twisting. It was a powerful picture of toxic, co-dependent friendship and just left me feeling a bit sad at the nastiness of people.

Thriller is a genre that promises to keep readers on the edge of their seats, and this delivers. From the very first page, the tension is palpable, and the plot twists and turns in unexpected ways, making it difficult to put the book down.

The characters are well-developed and the author does an excellent job of keeping the reader guessing as to who can be trusted and who is hiding something. The pacing is spot-on, with just the right amount of action and suspense to keep the reader engaged. The writing style is gripping and evocative, making it easy to visualise the scenes and feel the emotions of the characters.

The author's attention to detail and ability to create a believable world adds to the overall experience of the book. Overall, this is an excellent example of the thriller genre. It's a page-turner that will keep readers guessing until the very end and is sure to satisfy fans of the genre.

Highly recommended for anyone who loves a good suspenseful read.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

silly in places but in others, a fairly effective depiction of your toxic monogamous codependent female friendship taken to outlandish extremes. not bad!

I am left struggling to know how to review this book and do it justice! From the off I was drawn to the characters, thinking it would be wonderful to get to know them. They certainly turned out to be entertaining!

Moo and Roo are living their lives out together. Best friends, rivals, they have had a tumultuous past.

This book was gripping and I flew through it. The book gets darker as the story unfolds, skeletons definitely come out of the woodwork, and not just for Moo and Roo!

Brilliant characters. I highly recommend this book.

Muriel and Ruth have been best friends almost all of their lives and one night Muriel tells Ruth she will be dead in 72 hours. Surely that's just the ramblings of an old, poorly lady. Ruth is about to find out.

This was a dark and slightly sinister read. The story is told from Ruth and she is very much the unreliable narrator from the start. The plot jumps to past events that explain how they both ended up in the situation they are in. This is one of those stories where no one is particularly likeable at all. They all have their issues and flaws making you wonder about many decisions they make. The plot is a slow steady burn to an ending I had just about predicted. i did like how it finally came together and especially the letter to Courtney. It was possibly the most poignant moment. The ending was dark but exactly how you expected it to end. A dark read about toxic friendships and family.

Born on the same day in 1943, during an air raid, Ruth and Muriel have been best friends their whole lives, remaining inseparable through marriages, careers and some monumental fallings-out. Now, in their mid-seventies, Ruth cares for frail, wheelchair-bound Muriel, tolerating her selfish, entitled behaviour in the knowledge that Muriel has promised to leave everything to Ruth when she dies. Their days are monotonous, filled with Scrabble and passive aggression, until one evening when Muriel suddenly proclaims that in seventy-two hours she will be dead.

The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe, M.B.E. is a sharply observed story of friendship, family and betrayal. Author Claire Parkin crafts a compelling relationship between two women who at once loathe each other and yet cannot imagine life without each other, and the resentment, envy and co-dependence between the two is both believable and fascinating. I found myself drawn into their lives - the timeline switching between the present day and Ruth's memories of defining incidents spanning more than seventy years, and I was desperate to know how the narrative strands were going to be woven together to reveal the secrets at the heart of the friendship. Parkin gleefully scatters red herrings and misdirection throughout the story, so that the reader might make up their mind that the narrative is heading in a particular direction, only to find themselves wrong-footed.

The framing and narration is reminiscent of Elizabeth is Missing or Three Things About Elsie, the reader's perceptions of the elderly - and the perceptions of the - often frustrated and impatient - younger characters in these novels lending themselves easily to the unreliable narrator trope. Can we trust Ruth's recollections of the past or observations in the present? Is she being manipulated or is she doing the manipulating?

From the outset, Ruth portrays herself as the put-upon, long-suffering sidekick who has always lived in the shadow of her more beautiful, charming friend; at one point she notes how Muriel entered the world serenely, while Ruth, according to her mother's accusatory account, had made so much noise when she was born minutes earlier that they couldn't hear the all clear siren announcing that the air raid was over. Because it is Ruth who is telling the story of the two women's inextricably linked lives, it is up to the reader to challenge the narrative we are presented with and uncover the truth. Indeed, both women are complex, layered characters, and it is impossible not to feel sympathy for both of them at times; they are undeniably products of their generation, class and experiences.

Parkin writes Ruth's voice convincingly throughout - from lonely, neglected little girl to cantankerous old woman. Muriel is inevitably more of a cypher; we are not privy to her innermost thoughts so must draw our conclusions about her from Ruth's biased testimony. Because of this, the ending felt rather hurried and unearned.

Overall, this was a hugely enjoyable, riveting debut, and I look forward to seeing what else Claire Parkin has up her sleeve.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

I did like this although it was a quite a slow story - I'm giving this feedback is the slowness was worth it for the bombshells dropped, for example about Harvey.
Didn't expect the depth / deceit from Ru, but I expected it from Mu, who seemed like a mean, jealous and unlikeable character. Portrayed well in the story though.
I almost thought the end was fitting, although I questioned whether I was mean!!

A totally original tale with the green eyed monster the most guilty at the end. Great characters and excellent use of moving time line. I listened to this recently on an audio edition but felt there were things in the book I had missed along the way so was glad to also get an ebook copy.

What a very odd and vaguely disturbing book. Dark, very, very dark. It buzzes with a constant undercurrent or resentment, hatred (dare I say it? Yes, I think so...), and toxicity, all hidden - sometimes barely - under a veneer of respectability. Moo and Roo are dysfunctional, competitive and in so many ways dreadful to each other. Throw in a good helping of dementia and delusion, and the pot starts to bubble.

The characters are an interesting mix of weakness, madness and spite. Harvey was awful, Roo's mother possibly even more so. Moo and Roo are not far behind. The only sensible one was Stephanie. Either way, it goes to show how you can end up feeding off someone, literally sucking them dry, if you don't move on. Physically, emotionally and mentally.

I'm going to say 3 and a half stars. It isn't quite my cup of Earl Grey, more like a bitter, slightly past-it's-sell-by-date green tea. The one that gives you hallucinations.

In The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe, we are taken on a journey through the complex and toxic friendship of childhood friends Ruth and Muriel - their lifelong relationship is far from nurturing though. They have a really twisted bond between and both characters are seriously flawed and genuinely unlikable!
That said, I still found this to be a compelling debut novel however, I feel it will be a bit of a marmite book.

I've just been on a wild ride with Muriel and Ruth, Moo and Roo. A pair of septugenarians, born hours apart, best friends who have spent their lives and loves together In her heyday Moo was a model and a socialite, everyones darling, Roo was always by her side, always second best, never quite good enough. In the final hours of Moo's life all that has gone un-said comes out, along with the truth: 'She loved you even when you were not easy to love, not a source of pride, but of sorry and dissapointment. Please understand and appreciate the value of that'...Read it (and be nice to your best friend).

Ruth and Muriel (Roo and Moo fgs) have been friends since childhood and are now living together, with Ruth caring for the invalided Muriel. They have their ups and downs until Muriel announces one evening that she has 72 hours to live.

This story failed to grab me right from the start and I found myself discouraged from picking it up which is never a good sign. The central characters did not engage at all.

The publicity references Eleanor Oliphant but this story lacks its quiet sense of humour.

Ruth and Muriel have been friends forever - their moms literally met while giving birth. Now, Ruth takes care of the ill Muriel. Things get strange though one day when Muriel announces she will be dead in 72 hours.

This one seemed like it was going to be a suspense/thriller but it was more about the friendship between Ruth and Muriel and the ups and downs they’ve had over the years. I think the title and synopsis weren’t great for what actually happened in the book.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wonder how many people are old enough (that would be me!) to remember the very dark, rather lurid psychological horror film 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane' because it kept popping into my head as I was reading. It's many many degrees removed from this, of course, but there is just a teensy essence of similarity.

We have two women, 'friends' since childhood, one now in a wheelchair, living together in their dotage, but who actually aren't very friendly to each other at all. They are both rather toxic and not wholly likeable and you do, albeit a bit uncharitably, consider they are actually well suited to each other.

It makes for difficult reading sometimes, but, it is deliciously dark and twisted and well written. I didn't foresee the ending…the 'gosh, I didn't see that coming' finale is invariably the icing on a cake of a good read.

The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe is the author’s debut and I found it to be an original and interesting novel. It’s very slow paced and it took me a while to become interested in the toxic friendship between Muriel and her friend Ruth. They have a long and complicated history and their relationship is a difficult one filled with resentment. I felt that they were both unlikeable characters and this was an obstacle for me to enjoying the novel fully.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

Murial and Ruth have been inseparable since they were born, going through life's highs and lows together. As Muriel's health starts to deteriorate, Ruth becomes her carer, the two living together in Muriel's London home. When Muriel makes a shocking announcement one afternoon, Ruth's life begins to unravel.

I found this one a struggle if I'm being completely honest. I'm sure there will be readers out there who love it, but it wasn't for me.

The blurb is 100% accurate when it mentions this being a story of toxic friendships. The relationship between Muriel and Ruth is about as toxic as you can possibly get. As we see flashbacks of the girls' younger lives it becomes clear that this started at an early age and has continued as they have grown old together, being continually exacerbated by those around them. Neither of the two characters comes out of the story looking like a good person, with the two of them going tit for tat at every opportunity.

Where I struggled was that the humour didn't work for me, so the novel as a whole was very dark and uncomfortable. With not liking the characters and the story being rather heavy I found myself not looking forward to picking this up, and that's very unusual for me.

As I said I'm sure some readers will love it, but for me personally it needed something to help lighten the tone in places.

Thanks to NetGalley and PanMacmillan for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I read an eARC of this book so thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley.

This book was so unnerving. It’s darkly comic but you really see the worst of the characters!

This book is about two women in their mid seventies who live together. Ruth cares for Muriel who has been in a wheelchair for twenty years. The two women have known each other since they were children. They have a long and messy past and are really quite awful to each other but they have a strange co-dependent relationship.

These two characters are both intent on destroying each other, their relationship is so utterly toxic. It was weird and horrible and yet I couldn’t look away, I was completely gripped!

I found this so unnerving because the characters so really harrowing things to each other and others around them and are so lighthearted about it! Ruth is positively cheery about some of her actions. Early on you feel quite sympathetic to Ruth and Muriel seems like the villain, but we quickly learn Ruth is an unreliable narrator and has a weird perception of her life (although Muriel is also really cruel and abusive).

Recommend checking content warnings for this one. It seems quite light and comedic until it doesn’t and it covers some really dark content.

Entertaining but I felt quite freaked out after reading it! If you enjoy darker reads this might be for you!

3.75 ⭐️

This follows Murial and Ruth. They have been friends since birth. They are both now in their 70's. Ruth is not only Murials friend but also her full time carer. Murial is wheelchair bound due to a mysterious illness. Murial is an ex model and Ruth is an ex journalist. This book is written by the POV of Ruth. There is also a dual timeline
going back over past events.

This is a story of toxic friendship at its finest. It was dark, comedic, and twisty. I did find the pace a bit slow for my liking so it took me a while to adjust to the writing style. However, I really enjoyed the characters, they were so toxic with each other and enjoyed finding out why their friendship became so toxic.

This is a great debut novel, I had a great time reading this and have never hated two characters as equally as i did these two.

Thank you to Netgally and Pan Macmillan for the e copy in exchange for an honesty review.