Spotlight on “The Night In Question” by Susan Fletcher

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The Night In Question, a lyrical and emotionally engaging novel infused with mystery and wisdom about love, friendship, and the power of forgiveness.

About The Night In Question

Florrie Butterfield—eighty-seven, one-legged, and of cheerful disposition—believes there can’t be any more adventures or surprises in life to experience. Yet one midsummer’s evening, there’s an accident at Babbington Hall—the adult residence where she lives—so shocking and strange that Florrie is suspicious; is this really an accident? Or is she being lied to? Is she, in fact, living alongside a potential murderer? 

In her efforts to learn the truth, Florrie is forced to look back on her own life, with all its passions and regrets; she must confront her own bloody secret—and, at last, forgive herself. Above all, Florrie learns, through the help of her new friend, Stanhope, that you’re never too old to have the life you’ve always dreamed of. When it comes to love, it’s never too late.

Readers of moving fiction about late-in-life second chances such as Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove and Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry will love this unputdownable book.

Source: Publisher
ISBN-13: 9781454952558
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
Publication date: 04/02/2024

Editorial Reviews for The Night In Question

[In the novel The Night In Question,] Fletcher (House of Glass) expertly intertwines two mysteries in this eloquent and astute tale set in a British assisted living facility. The first mystery concerns Renata Green, manager of Babbington Hall, a retirement residence in the Oxfordshire countryside. Renata’s fall from her office window is witnessed by 87-year-old Florrie Butterfield, who roams the facility’s grounds in her wheelchair and is “as deaf as a saucepan without her hearing aids.” Residents suspect Renata jumped in a suicide attempt that has left her comatose, but Florrie, who chatted with Renata earlier in the day and found her to be uncharacteristically cheery and outgoing, believes she was murdered. 

Following that hunch, the octogenarian sets about investigating with the help of fellow resident and former schoolteacher Stanhope Jones. As they gather clues, Fletcher lights the fuse on the second mystery: who is Florrie, anyway? What’s behind the terrible secret she has trouble even thinking about in private? And what might she learn about forgiveness from her sleuthing with Stanhope? Fletcher points those questions in poignant directions, providing her unforgettable protagonist with resonant lessons about mending the past, all while maintaining satisfying tension in the central whodunit. 

This gloriously uplifting mystery will stay with readers long after they’ve turned the final page. (Apr.)—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“This charming blend of cozy mystery and relationship fiction will appeal to fans of Beth Morrey and Phaedra Patrick.”—Booklist, Starred Review

About Susan Fletcher, Author of The Night In Question

Susan Fletcher is a British novelist. She was born in Birmingham and studied creative writing at the University of East Anglia. Her first novel, Eve Green, won the 2004 Whitbread First Novel Award, the Authors’ Club award, and the Betty Trask Prize; it was also picked for Channel 4’s (UK) Richard and Judy Summer Reading list. Subsequent novels have been shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys award, the Writers’ Guild fiction award, and longlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year award. Her novel Witch Light won the Saint-Maur en Poche award 2013 in France. Fletcher is the current Fellow at the University of Worcester as part of the Royal Literary Fund’s fellowship scheme.

You can find and follow Susan Fletcher on her website, and on Facebook.

Titles by Susan Fletcher

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