Book: M is for MEMORIES by Joan Fallon

categories: Book, Mystery Drama, Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Domestic Violence, Old Age, Women's Fiction

Joan Fallon

about this book: With my latest novel, M IS FOR MEMORIES, I have moved away from historical themes to present day Marbella. As usual I am writing about women and in this case the story looks at two areas - one is old age and the problems (and also the freedoms) of growing old; the other is about domestic abuse and how difficult it was to report it to anyone back in the 1960s. For those of you old enough to remember the 50s and 60s I'm sure you remember that people did not go to the police or even the doctor if their husband was knocking them about - they just got on with it. The police were not interested in interfering in a "domestic" case. Wives were expected to honour and obey. Luckily things have changed since those days.

However, although the book looks at serious issues it is also about entertaining the reader and above all this is a mystery story. It is a drama about an ageing artist, Nancy Miller, who lives in Marbella and has decided to write her memoirs. She employs Ana, a bi-lingual Spanish woman, to help her to write them but the task is more difficult than she first thought. Talking about her past brings back memories that she would rather forget and it soon becomes obvious to Ana that there is a terrible secret in Nancy's past which, if revealed could ruin her reputation and devastate her family.