The Kindness of Strangers is part historical fiction, part murder-mystery and has just a sprinkling of melodrama. About two too many plot strands are neatly tied up by its end, as though Garman couldn’t resist a few final flourishes. But such indulgence is forgivable when a book is this vivid and entertaining, and powered by such a wonderfully dry wit.
This is not only an excellent mystery, but an evocative portrayal of a group of people displaced socially and geographically by war and its aftermath, with the moral and topographical landscape of 1950s London superbly rendered.
An intriguingly tricksy story ... The 1953 setting is perfectly realised by Garman, with smoky, boisterous pubs and down-at-heel drawing rooms. Her vivid characters find themselves at the mercy of old-fashioned ideas that compress their lives into clandestine shapes.
The Kindness of Strangers has already been drawing comparisons to Agatha Christie, Kate Atkinson, Richard Osman, even Alfred Hitchcock, but it is a book that is gloriously its own, one filled with twists, dark humor, and characters in a constant state of revelation. You’ll gulp it all down – and then wait impatiently for Emma Garman’s next book.
An intriguing, slow-build mystery with a nicely drawn, morally gray cast of characters bouncing off one another ... Readers seeking character-driven mysteries will find much to enjoy in this beautifully written novel.
An addictive mystery centered on the residents of a rambling Chelsea boarding house in 1953 London ... Maximizes suspense with perfectly timed reveals. Readers will hope for more from the author soon.
