I seem to be out of step here. It took me at least 250 pages to begin to become remotely interested in the lives of the characters who inhabited The Avenue in that sweltering summer of 1976: one I remember well, as I was pregnant with my first child, and for once in my life didn't relish the heat). I had difficulty remembering which character was which and I didn't believe in the young heroines, Grace and Tilly, who seemed remarkably unwordly (I was an extremely unworldly 10 year old once, but even I wasn't that simple). Most of all, I resented Cannon's polished little metaphors and similes. They were clever, but Cannon all but put them in italics to make sure we noticed them. I only bothered to finish the book because it is our reading book choice for this month. The plot seemed pointless. Some parts stretched credulity. For example, virtually the entire neighbiourhood turns out to look at some rust-stained drainpipe that apparently looks like Jesus. Really?

What a relief when I turned the last page. ( )

I loved the child's voice when she narrated, but the plot was overly complicated and did not draw me in. ( )

Even though I expected a more packaged, complete ending, I did enjoy this novel. The writing feels very free, unencumbered, simple yet sophisticated. There are some delightful turns of phrasing and implied descriptions that provide detail without saying too much. The narrator, Grace, is a lot like Flavia de Luce without being a replication. Both are intelligent and think more highly of themselves than they ought and are blissfully unaware of their faults - in an endearing way.
It is too bad the narrative has to go third person for past events and other characters. It would have been a very excellent novel if Grace's story was held throughout. However, its interruptions introduce and develop many other interesting characters who also live in The Avenue. Tilly could have had more page time, too, because she is also delightful.
The story is set in 1976 with 1967 flashbacks, but hopefully readers see the bias and judgementalism as commentary on today's society just as much.

This book is definitely a novel of two halves. Told from multiple viewpoints, it is set in the roasting hot dry summer of 1976 in a small housing estate somewhere in England. The main action takes place in a close/culdesac of houses where a woman, Mrs Creasey, has gone missing. Two ten-year-olds, Grace who lives in the close, and Tillie, her friend who lives somewhere nearby, decide to investigate, but in the form of a quest to find God in the close, as they have been convinced by the sermon in church that He will sort things out. Part of the story is from Grace's point of view, and other parts are from some of the adults living in the neighbourhood, and they switch between 1976 and 1967, when a baby was supposedly abducted.

Gradually, we learn that the various adults all have secrets which Mrs Creasey, a good listener, was privy to - and it seems likely she was murdered to keep her quiet. One man, Walter Bishop, is a local scapegoat for everything that goes wrong - he was suspected of abducting the baby, had his house burned down with his mother in it, and has been subjected to harrassment by - at times - crowds threatening to become a mob. The finger is pointed at him in connection with Mrs Creasey's disappearance, especially since she had apparently been helping him (his glasses are found at her house with information that indicates she was taking them to be fixed).

Despite the narrative being a little too knowing at times for a 10-year-old, I enjoyed Grace's viewpoint best of all and was really enjoying the story which was heading for a 5-star review. And then the bottom dropped out when the whole neighbourhood suddenly developed a fixation with a stain on a water pipe which bears some resemblance to Jesus, even characters who seemed very unlikely to have any religious convictions. I couldn't really take it seriously after that - or the abrupt recovery of a child who was seemingly at death's door in hospital. And the ending is a deliberate tease. So given that the first part was very enjoyable and the second not, my verdict can only be a 3-star rating. ( )

I had hoped to like this book more. I enjoyed the setting using the heatwave of 1976 as a backdrop to the story and I liked the two main characters ( children). The writing was good but something didn't quite gel for me. ( )