Quiet Neighbors
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Average rating3.8
Its the oldest bookshop in a town full of bookshops; rambling and disordered, full of treasures if you look hard. Jude found one of the treasures when she visited last summer, the high point of a miserable vacation. Now, in the depths of winter, when she has to run away, Lowells chaotic bookshop in that backwater of a town is the safe place she runs to. Jude needs a bolt-hole; Lowell needs an assistant, and when an affordable rental is thrown in too, life begins to look up. The gravedigger's cottage isn't perfect for a woman alone, but at least she has quiet neighbors. Quiet, but not silent. The long dead and the books they left behind both have tales to tell, and the dusty rooms of the bookshop are not the haven they seem to be. Lowell's past and Jude's present are a dangerous cocktail of secrets and lies, and someone is coming in to light the taper that could destroy everything." -- Amazon.com.
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Quiet Neighbors begins with a girl on a train, from London to Scotland, obviously running from something/someone. She ends up in Wigtown, Scotland, where she once vacationed. This woman, Jude, is befriended and given a job and a place to live by a used bookstore owner. As the book develops, we slowly are given clues to Jude's past, as well as Lowell's, the shop owner. Wigtown is very small and new people are noticed. Shortly after Jude arrives, a young women (Eddy) arrives and claims that Lowell is her father. He accepts Jude as she is, he accepts Eddy as well. It turns out, they all have secrets in their past, as do other townspeople. Quiet Neighbors is the unfolding of all their stories. It's not a romance, yet it's a love story. It's not a comedic book, yet it's very amusing and wry. It's not gory, yet it's a murder mystery. In spite of the number of characters (3 main but many more on the periphery), McPherson relates a tale I could not put down. She fleshed out the characters in such a masterful way and created such an improbable cast of characters that I found myself rooting for a happy ending. I was not disappointed. A jolly good read.
