The Night In Question by Susan Fletcher
Florence Butterfield has lived an extraordinary life full of travel, passion and adventure. But, at eighty-seven, she suspects there are no more surprises to come her way.
Then, one midsummer’s night, something terrible happens – so strange and unexpected that Florrie is suspicious. Was this really an accident, or is she living alongside a would-be murderer?
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The only clue is a magenta envelope, discarded earlier that day.
And Florrie – cheerfully independent but often overlooked – is the only person determined to uncover the truth.
As she does, Florrie finds herself looking back on her own life . . . and a long-buried secret, traced in faded scars across her knuckles, becomes ever harder to ignore.
Readers of Elizabeth is Missing, Small Pleasures or Dear Mrs Bird will love prize-winning author Susan Fletcher’s The Night in Question – an absorbing and uplifting novel with a uniquely loveable protagonist at its heart.
My Review
It’s not often that the main protagonist in a novel is old enough to be my mother, and still alive. But in The Night In Question, we have Florence Butterfield (Florrie), 87 years old (soon to be 88), one leg and a wheelchair user. So don’t expect any fast car chases or wrestling to the ground, because while there is a death and a possible attempted murder, it’s more about Florrie reflecting on her life. And what a life it has been, a life ‘full of travel, passion and adventure.’
Florrie lives in an assisted living facility, her ‘apartment’ being an old apple store, while the others include an old pig sty, converted into four dwellings! Those less able live in the main house like Tabitha Brimble and Nancy Tapp. Renata is the manager, a tiny forty-something woman with pale skin and platinum hair.
The residents are described in such perfect and humorous detail, particularly the Ellwood twins, who are not actually sisters, or in fact twins. They are the gossips and know everything that’s going on, not that they pry or snoop, heaven forbid.
There were six loves in Florrie’s life – from Gaston Duplantier, who without Paris they would never have met, Jack Luckett (Florrie can still see his musculature and the colouring of his forearms) in Africa, and her husband of 30 years diplomat Victor Plumley. What fun they had! Then there was Hassan abu Zahra, Dougal Henderson and finally (though in fact first if we were doing this in chronological order) Teddy Silversmith, the latter involved in that Hackney business, which we desperately want to know about.
Florrie lived with her eccentric mother Prudence, father Henry, a policeman who was killed on duty when she was quite young, Aunt Pip who fled an abusive marriage to take care of them all, and poor Bobs, her older brother, devastatingly injured during the 2nd World War. There is also Gulliver the cat, always there throughout Florrie’s childhood. We had a dog named Gulliver – he was huge like Gulliver in Lilliput. The cat was more like Gulliver in Brobdingnag.
And I wish I had a friend like Pinky. Always loyal, always there.
If I could give this book six stars I would. I cried (no surprise there) for Florrie when the truth of that Hackney business is finally revealed. In fact I cried for a good half hour at the end. I cried for a life well lived, but never fully realised, for second chances and for love, of course. Beautifully written and observed, a true masterpiece.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Susan Fletcher was born in Birmingham and studied English Literature at the University of York. Whilst taking the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, she began her first novel, Eve Green, which won the Whitbread First Novel Award (2004) and Betty Trask Prize (2005). Since then, Susan has written seven novels – whilst also supplementing her writing through various roles, including as a bar person, a cheesemonger and a warden for an archaeological excavation site near Hadrian’s Wall. Most recently, she has been a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of
Worcester. She lives in Warwickshire.
