A GOOD PLACE TO HIDE A BODY
BY LAURA MARSHALL
Published: 2nd January 2025
Hodder & Stoughton
”Can you come round?” Dad says tremulously.
”Of course. Are you OK? Is it Mum?”
”No!” He almost shouts it. ”Just come quickly. The garden…the…body… we need you, Penny.”
For women of Penny”s generation, being on hand for elderly parents is just part of life. But for Penny, things have become a little more serious…
When she receives a frantic phone call from her parents one night, with express instructions NOT to call the police, Penny rushes over at once. But they haven”t had a fall. They haven”t forgotten their computer passwords. They’ve killed someone. And his body is lying in the garden, right next to the rose bushes.
Everyone is capable of murder. They just need to meet the right person.
This fun read centres on Penny and her elderly parents, who are having some financial difficulties. In light of this, they decide to rent out their basement to a seemingly respectable middle-aged gentleman. A decision which they have cause to regret. The synopsis alone gave me Pacific Heights vibes. For anyone not around in 1990, it’s a fantastic film where Michael Keaton plays the lodge from hell. Anyway, I digress.
One evening, Penny receives a frantic phone call from her father asking her to go over to see them. To cut a long story short, the lodger has been killed!
This book explores the problems of ageing and sharing your home with strangers. It’s hilarious in some parts, especially when Penny and her father are trying to hide the body. The literary style is pleasing, and the story flows with ease.
Penny is likeable and believable. I found myself empathising with her a great deal, and her mother Sissy is a brilliant character too, full of fun and wit.
Huge thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and Laura Marshall for providing an eARC via NetGalley; this is my unbiased review.
4 / 5
‘It’s a not too serious thriller I’d highly recommend.’