Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which we share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers who do the same.
Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with My Head Is Full of Books.
To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.
Today’s feature is a new book for me from a favorite author: Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter, by Nicci French.
Book Beginning:
(Prologue)
Thirty years ago, in a village in East Anglia where the land is swallowed up by mudflats and marshes and a hard wind blows in from the sea, a woman went missing.
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Friday 56:
Alec has come in late and said he didn’t want anything to eat. Etty couldn’t decipher his mood: he was morose, but every so often anger flared up in him then died down again, leaving him more sullen.
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Synopsis:On the day of Alec Salter’s fiftieth birthday party, his wife, Charlotte, vanishes. Most of the small English village of Glensted is at the party for hours before anyone realizes she is missing. While Alec brushes off her disappearance, their four children—especially fifteen-year-old Etty—grow increasingly anxious as the cold winter hours become days and she doesn’t return. Then Etty and her friend Morgan find the body of Morgan’s father—and the Salters’ neighbor— Duncan Ackerley, floating in the river. The police conclude that Duncan and Charlotte were having an affair before he killed her and committed suicide.
Thirty years later, Morgan Ackerley returns to Glensted with his older brother to make a podcast based on their shared tragedy with the Salters. Alec, stricken with dementia, is entering an elder care facility while Etty helps put his affairs in order. But when the Ackerleys ask to interview the Salters, the entire town gets caught up in the unresolved cases.
Allegations fly, secrets come to light, and a suspicious fire leads to a murder. With the podcast making national news, London sends Detective Inspector Maud O’Connor to Glensted to take over the investigation. She will stop at nothing to uncover the truth as a new and terrifying picture of what really happened to Charlotte Salter and Duncan Ackerley emerges.
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Would you keep reading? I always enjoy this author.
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This sounds like a fantastic plot. I hope it is.
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I love this author, Anne, so I am looking forward to it.
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This sounds really good. I don’t think I’ve read this author before.
My Friday post is here.
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Thanks, Yvonne, I especially enjoyed this author’s Freda Klein series.
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Definitely sounds like a lot to unpack in this story – an emotionally charged read, I’d guess! Hope you’re enjoying it!
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Thanks, Kym, I love the anticipation of this one.
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Oh yes,, I would definitely keep reading! I hope you have a great week, Laurel-Rain!
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Thanks, Wendy, I am now going to start reading the Nicci French book. I hope to love it.
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Ooh, this sounds so good! I’d definitely keep reading! Hope you have a great week! 🙂
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Thanks, Ashley, I just started reading it…and I am eager to watch the drama unfold.
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