On a blustery April day, the quiet, rather private wife of a doctor discovers that her husband has been having an affair. Moments later, driving al...
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Mar 02, 2009
Eva
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This reminded me in its coolness and seeming detachment of Lionel Shriver's novels. Really, there is much boiling emotion and no wonder - a woman who has just discovered that her husband is having an affair accidentally drives into a woman named Ruth, killing her. She drives away and never does turn herself in, but to make amends, she watches over Ruth's widower Arthur (who is falling to pieces, emotionally and physically), first secretly and then so obviously that Arthur thinks she must be th
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Feb 26, 2009
Michael
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The unnamed driver of a car is using her husbands' car while hers is being repaired. She finds a condom in the glove compartment. She is distracted due to finding about her hudband's infidelity and momentarily blinded by the sun and hits a bicyclist, killing the woman on the bike. The bicyclist, Ruth Mitchell has been killed and the car's driver is unable to face the consequences of her action and leaves the scene.
A bit later her husband tells her that the marriage isn't worki More...
A bit later her husband tells her that the marriage isn't worki More...
Aug 29, 2011
Billpilgrim
rated it: 
This book was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Novel. I'm not sure why it qualifies as a mystery though. I never read any Joss before, and it seems that some of her other books are more traditional mystery stories. A whodunit with an investigating detective sort of thing. In The Following Day, there is a crime at the start, but no mystery about it and no investigation that we ever see. The narrator commits a hit and run accident, leaving the scene after striking a woman on her bicycle and k
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Jul 22, 2011
Rebecca
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This book was so boring. It was like written in three different stories that all overlapped each other, but not. Really it was two people's point of views with one of the person's wives who dies stories thrown in for good measure. I got most of the plot out of reading the summary on the flap which is a good thing because otherwise I probably wouldn't have known what was going on. A women kills another women in a hit and run accident and she feels so guilty that she interjects herself into the de
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Nov 07, 2011
Tonya
rated it: 
I refuse to give this book anymore time than it has already squelched from me, so this will be quick and painless unlike my reading of the damn thing.
In this book we start with a woman in her husband's car spilling groceries, then when attempting clean up finds an empty condom wrapper in his car. *DUM-DUM* After this our character finds herself in some sort of fugue state, wait for it *DUM-DUM* because she finds she doesn't care he's having an affair and doesn't care she doesn't care. More...
In this book we start with a woman in her husband's car spilling groceries, then when attempting clean up finds an empty condom wrapper in his car. *DUM-DUM* After this our character finds herself in some sort of fugue state, wait for it *DUM-DUM* because she finds she doesn't care he's having an affair and doesn't care she doesn't care. More...
May 29, 2009
Julie
rated it: 
I would have given this a solid four stars, but the final third of the book proved disappointing.
This is a new author to me; I selected the book from the New Reads shelf at my local purely on the author's name- Morag is one of my favorites (long story. Turns out she's best-known for her crime/thriller genre novels. The Night Following doesn't fit easily into this category- it's a psychological drama; there is a crime central to the plot, and another that's woven into a story-within- More...
This is a new author to me; I selected the book from the New Reads shelf at my local purely on the author's name- Morag is one of my favorites (long story. Turns out she's best-known for her crime/thriller genre novels. The Night Following doesn't fit easily into this category- it's a psychological drama; there is a crime central to the plot, and another that's woven into a story-within- More...
May 03, 2009
Tom
rated it: 
The Night Following
By Morag Joss
Morag Joss is originally from Scotland and now lives in England. The Night Following is her sixth novel since 1997. Her books have been adapted for television in Britain and 2007’s Puccini’s Ghosts has been optioned for a major motion picture.
This story starts innocently enough. An anesthesiologist and his wife switch cars for the day so that the good doctor can get his wife’s car serviced. While the wife is loading groceries More...
By Morag Joss
Morag Joss is originally from Scotland and now lives in England. The Night Following is her sixth novel since 1997. Her books have been adapted for television in Britain and 2007’s Puccini’s Ghosts has been optioned for a major motion picture.
This story starts innocently enough. An anesthesiologist and his wife switch cars for the day so that the good doctor can get his wife’s car serviced. While the wife is loading groceries More...
Oct 31, 2009
Ann
rated it:
Even though I found the premise of this book totally unbelievable (basically a woman sneaks into the home of a man whose wife she has killed in a hit and run accident and stays--half-hidden--to help him through his grief), the story was oddly compelling. Through the interweaving of first person narrative from the "killer," letters from the husband to his dead wife, and chapters from an unfinished novel written by the dead wife you come to know each of the three main characters. It al
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Jan 15, 2012
Sherry
rated it:
The format of the book is complex, with the narration, Arthur's letters to Ruth, and Ruth's novel intertwined. I found myself looking forward to each section, but particularly to glimpses of Arthur, who even in his grief is a delight. His actions are odd but understandable; on the other hand, it's hard to believe the doctor's wife, who seems to have no friends to notice her absence or increasingly strange behavior and appearance. The book is thoroughly depressing, but the characters stuck with m
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Jun 11, 2010
Catherine
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This book begins well - it starts with a wife who discovers her husband has been having an affair and then on the way home hits someone with her car. This first part reads like a psychological thriller and the style draws you in and makes you want to read more. However, after that the style changes- prose becomes much more wordy (lots of lengthy descriptions and metaphors) to the extent that I found myself skimming over irrelevant sections. It is also mixed with another story which is written by
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Mar 30, 2010
Debbie
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I would give this four stars for writing and atmosphere, but I feel so adrift as to what really happened, that is, who the narrator was and what she was about that I can't quite to it. A woman is involved in a hit and run. The woman hit was riding her bike and was killed instantly. The narrator insinuates herself into the grieving elderly widower's life. Interspersed are chapters from a family saga written by the dead woman, a story which oddly echoes the memories of the narrator. Or do the
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Dec 31, 2009
Daniel
rated it:
This highly original, haunting novel, told in three perspectives, is beautifully written but rather outstays its welcome. It tells of a woman who, upon discovering her husband's infidelity, drives down a road and accidentally runs over and kills a bicyclist. Fleeing the scene, she discovers that the woman she killed, Ruth, was an aspiring writer. She finds where her husband, Arthur lives, and seeing he has become a broken man in his grief, she takes to cleaning up after him, making him meals, an
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May 15, 2008
Heather
rated it:
This is a confusing and depressing book. Two of the narrators move from traumatized to unbalanced to depressed to demented over the course of the story. The additional "voice" is an unfinished novel by a third character, and it's just as grim.
It has a self-consciously "literary" structure, with the chapters alternating among three voices/genres: first person narrative, letter, and novel. I suspect that I was supposed to regard the unfinished novel as good, but More...
It has a self-consciously "literary" structure, with the chapters alternating among three voices/genres: first person narrative, letter, and novel. I suspect that I was supposed to regard the unfinished novel as good, but More...
Mar 15, 2010
Mary Beth
rated it:
I rarely feel so conflicted about a book. I loved several things about this book; I thought the essential premise was brilliant and I loved the story within the story. (I actually liked that story more than the central one.)
Ultimately, the book just grew too weird for me. It was so dispassionate and removed. I felt cheated, too, that so much was left unresolved. I expected that (the missing pages of the story within a story, for example) but expecting it didn't make it any less More...
Ultimately, the book just grew too weird for me. It was so dispassionate and removed. I felt cheated, too, that so much was left unresolved. I expected that (the missing pages of the story within a story, for example) but expecting it didn't make it any less More...
Jul 06, 2009
Carol
rated it:
The Night Following is one of the most impressive psychological thrillers I have ever read (and when a fan of Ruth Rendell says that, it means a lot!) After the main character - whose name we never learn - kills a woman in a hit and run accident, she becomes obsessed with the victim's husband, who in turn is learning things he never knew about his late wife's life. Beautifully crafted.
Jul 23, 2008
Moira
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Well, I finally finished this book, thank goodness. What a disappointment. I have read a couple of Joss's books and really liked them because I like the "descent into madness" type of psychological fiction. But this was really not very good. It was not believable, and the main characters were just not sympathetic. It wasn't until I was about 2/3 of the way through that I even got interested in finding out how it was all going to end, and then it ended in a totally unsatisfying way
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Feb 08, 2010
Kcrn
rated it:
This is about a doctor's wife who discovers her husband is having an affair. On her way to the hospital to confront him she accidently hits and kills a woman on a bike, panics and drives away. We follow 3 stories in the book. The story of how she comes undone with guilt, the story of the woman's grieving widow and also a fictional story the woman who was killed wrote. It was O.K. I thought the ending would be more interesting than it was.
May 29, 2011
Debbie
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The theme of blindness- going blindas you get older, going blind due to a shock and functioning as a seeing person but in absolute darkness are juxtaposed here. and of course being in the dask about what is actually going on in your life that awful figurative blindness. I liked this book but its eerie, best read with light!
May 04, 2011
J.
rated it:
This book by Morag Joss is a very unusual book, weird even but the plot can catch you and drag you along through the book. It is interesting how she weaves three different plot lines through the book. It was interesting.
J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"
J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"
Sep 03, 2010
Robin
rated it:
This is the second book I've read by Morag Joss. Are all of her books populated by people with a twisted talent for self delusion and self destruction? With each step her characters take, you become more and more appalled. How could anyone do that?
Jan 03, 2009
Janet
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I would call this a psychological thriller. While distracted, a woman kills another woman in a hit-and-run accident. The dead woman's husband and the driver of the car become intertwined in an interesting way.
Aug 06, 2011
Christi
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I liked this book and the alternating narratives, but the ending was frustrating and disappointing. I'll probably read something else by this author just to find out if all her books end without a lot of closure.
Jan 17, 2010
Anna
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I listened to this on audio and the three readers are tremendous. My rating is really the book - 2 stars - but a rating for the audio is more like 4 and a half stars. I loved the story that Ruth was writing much more than the other two stories.
Jul 08, 2011
Patricia
rated it:
Started out ok then grabbed my interest. I was actually more interested in the story within a story. It got a little too weird toward the end. Plus, I didn't really get how Ruth came to write the story about the hit and run driver's life. What did I miss?
Apr 29, 2010
maybe timing or whatever, started out with enthusiasm to read this one and just derailed...
Sep 14, 2010
Sherry
rated it:
A good read although did not enjoy it as much as Joss' Half Broken Things.
Feb 12, 2011
Timothy Patrick
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This is an amazing book. The prose is gorgeous. I felt as if the words were wrapping me up and cradling me, helping me to find peace. The calm tone of the book seems like it ought to be somewhat at odds with a narrative centered on wrongful death and other painful losses, but all of the first person narration beautifully captures very real emotions: anger, fear and numbness. After a single terrible moment destroys their ways of life, the two main characters make from what remains a world they ca
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