Laura Powell

The year is 1956 and fifteen-year-old Betty Broadbent's life is about to change forever. There is a murderer loose in St Steele, the little Cornish fishing village where she lives with her unpredictable mother who runs a boarding house. A bunch of journalists is flocking the boarding house and one of them, John Gallagher catches her eyes. Despite him being older than her are they drawn to each other, but the decisions they make will have deep consequence's years after this.

This book turned out to be not what I expected. What I thought it would be was two unlikely people: Betty, and Gallagher, trying to figure out who the killer was. But the story is more complex than. It's a story about secrets and lifelong guilt. Betty has grown up with a mother that she has to take care of now and then. Her mother seems to be bipolar or something because she has very dark moments. Dolores Broadbent is also a woman that likes men quite much and one of the men she has been "dating" is the butcher who is now seen as a suspect for the murders. And, as we follow Betty in the past with the worry about the murders we also jump 50 years forward in time and there we follow Mary who learns that the killer is for the first time talking about the murders in St Steele. And, slowly the story unfolds as we learn the truth will reading about Ruth in 1956 and Mary 50 years later.

The book is really good, it was surprising and it interesting to read. What I really like is that the story kept on twisting and turning all the way until the end of the book. I never thought it would turn the way it did. As I wrote, in the beginning, I just thought it would be a crime novel with two unlikely partners. But the killings and the consequences of it all was not what I had expected. It's well-written, poignant, and I warmly recommend this book!

I want to thank the publisher for providing with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review. … (mer)

2.5 stars. I won a Goodreads giveaway and received a complimentary copy from Gallery Books.

The description of this book said it is for fans of Tana French, which raised my excitement, but the book doesn't measure up to that standard, at least for me.

This is a literary mystery. It's written in more literary prose (short sentences, short paragraphs, a style I do not at all enjoy and find very cold, but that is definitely popular in literary fiction). The perspective is close on a few, well-drawn characters and jumps back and forth between the present day and the mid-50s. The 1956 sections follow a few months in fifteen-year-old Betty's life when her small village is upended by a serial killer and the journalists who come to report on the slayings. One of the reporters, a man named Gallagher, draws Betty's attention immediately, and I don't believe it's a spoiler to say that a tentative romance unfolds between them. The sections set 50 years later deal with memories that certain characters had tried--and failed--to bury. Themes of the power of guilt and questions of ethical decision-making thread through the book.

Several of the twists were easy to guess at before they were revealed like "Mary" really being Betty and John being the one she's going to see, the one she lied to protect, though others, like the identity of the killer, were more of a surprise. The prose, while not to my taste, did a very good job of communicating mental confusion and strong emotion. Several of the characters have some pretty severe mental health problems which are communicated powerfully. As for possible content warnings, I'm deeply uncomfortable with the frankly approving presentation of a romance between a fifteen-year-old girl and a thirty-year-old man. I guess we're supposed to forgive John because he felt really bad and conflicted about statutory rape and his actions are supposed to show that he really did love her? But I'm so done with stories of grown men falling in love with teenage girls. It makes my skin crawl.

As for the final reveal of the killer, it made me uncomfortable that Betty's bipolar mother was the one who committed the murders and that she did it out of jealousy due to her possessive love for a man. It was a good twist plot-wise and provided a nice motive for John's decisions; from a story perspective I can't complain. But people with mental illnesses can frequently be very dangerous to themselves, but they are very, very rarely murderers. (Maybe this irritation is just due to all the mass shootings in my country being blamed on unspecified mental health problems when really they're about male entitlement and lack of gun control. It might bother other people less.) I also just don't like the trope of murderously jealous women. Why is that a trope when murders by jealous women are very rare and murders or attempted murders by abusive, jealous men are relatively common? But even though several aspects of the book did make me uncomfortable, none of them infuriated me. I guess I didn't feel strongly enough about the book to be really upset.

This book is short and frankly not all that deep. While it touched on things like guilt, mental illness, and moral culpability, it didn't explore them deeply enough for me to really appreciate them. I like really climbing inside a story, being totally immersed in it, and grappling with the moral choices the characters make, and this book just doesn't lend itself to that kind of reading (see my above comment about it not being on Tana French's level at all). The whole thing felt...slight to me. All that said, it's a well-crafted, tightly-written book, quickly read, and I can imagine many readers enjoying it.… (mer)

Weaving back and forth between past and present, The Unforgotten by Laura Powell is an intriguing mystery about a spate of murders in a seaside town.

In 1956, fifteen year old Betty Broadbent lives with her mom, Dolores, who manages the Hotel Eden in St. Steele. When young women are targeted by a particularly vicious killer, several journalists descend on the small town as they cover the story. Betty is instantly fascinated with Gallagher, a reporter who is twice her age. Despite her mom's best efforts to pair her daughter with George Paxon, the son of a wealthy factory owner, Betty and Gallagher are soon seeing one another in secret due to the impropriety of their fledgling romance. In between trying to convince Gallagher there is nothing wrong with their relationship, Betty covers for her mother, who seems to be suffering from bipolar disorder and a drinking problem.

In 2006, Mary Sugden has received a troubling diagnosis but before she can tell her husband, Jerry and daughter Cath about it, she is distracted by a troubling news story about the person who was convicted of the brutal murders in St. Steele a half a century earlier. Mary is determined to right a wrong, so she tracks down the only person who can possibly prove what she believes to the identity of the real killer.

Both storylines are interesting but the story arc set in 1956 is rather slow paced and none of the characters are particularly well-developed or likable. Betty is a curious blend of mature and hopelessly naive. She is obviously dealing with a lot since her mother's behavior is unpredictable as she veers back and forth between manic highs and bouts of deep depression which leave her bedridden. Dolores is also searching for love and her heart is broken numerous times when these relationships inevitably end. Betty is obedient to her mother but she is impatient with Dolores' attempt to set her up with George. Needless to say, once Betty meets Gallagher, she cannot bring herself to completely reject George, but she definitely becomes more resistant to her mother's matchmaking. Betty is also frustrated by Gallagher's frequent changes of heart where she is concerned.

Readers who are expecting a straight up mystery will most likely be underwhelmed by how quickly the murders take a bit of a backseat to the drama playing out in the Hotel Eden. The few mentions of the ongoing investigation paint a portrait of a suspect being railroaded as the police try to wrap up the case in order to placate the frightened townspeople. It is not until the events in present that the person convicted of the crimes is named but is this person actually responsible for the murders?

The Unforgotten by Laura Powell is a character driven novel with a fascinating mystery to solve. Unfortunately, the plot is rather melodramatic and it is difficult to become overly invested with the characters since they are so poorly developed and impossible to like. The identity of the killer is rather easy to guess even though the motive for the crimes is elusive. There are a few unexpected twists that are revealed later in the story but the conclusion is abrupt and somewhat unsatisfying.… (mer)

In Laura Powell’s The Unforgotten, a flock of reporters descends on the Eden Hotel in the Cornish village of St. Steele after a second young woman is murdered by a brutal killer. Fifteen-year-old Betty Broadbent lives there with her mother, Delores, the hotel manager. Hotel is rather grand, it’s more of an inn, with the two of them doing most of the work. Betty’s mother clearly suffers from a dramatic, rapidly cycling bipolar disorder that sometimes leaves Betty picking up all the slack and which has made her mature for her age. She befriends John Gallegher, one of the reporters, a son of privilege who is resented by the other reporters. He’s tall, dark, and handsome and Betty falls hard. But then so does he, and she’s underage.

As more murders accumulate, opinion focuses on the local butcher, though Betty is certain he is innocent. She saw how he acted with her mother when Delores was clearly in a mental crisis and thinks he is too gentle to be the killer. In time, she is certain she knows who the killer is, but can she tell and if she does, will people believe her?

Meanwhile, the story jumps ahead fifty years into the future when the so-called Cornish Cleaver gives an interview in the press. Mary, a woman who is facing a crisis in her own life is shattered by the news.

While identifying the murderer is critical to the story of The Unforgotten, the story is not about collecting clues and making deductions. This is a story about relationships, obligations, love, and guilt. No one really solves the murder, though the identity is revealed in a devastating way. The revelation is fair, though, and makes sense, even though it may be surprising to many readers. What is more shocking, though, are the decisions people make out of love, decisions that are morally wrong. Does love justify what they do?

We are asked to believe that a grand moral sacrifice was made for love, but the decision is made on someone’s behalf without letting them weigh in. The author sees it as proof of love, I saw it as cowardice. This book made me angry, but that speaks to its power. I think the decisions are so wrong, not romantic at all, but Laura Powell sure made me care.

I received an e-galley of The Unforgotten from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Unforgotten at Gallery Books | Simon & Schuster
Laura Powell author site

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2019/01/24/9781501184253/… (mer)