I thoroughly enjoyed these atmospheric thriller, which evoked a fantastic sense of time and place. I really liked the different points of view and it brought home the attitudes of white Americans in the 50s. I also thought the relationship between the detective and Ruby was well portrayed.

A really stylish, enjoyable thriller which I would highly recommend.

Although I wouldn’t normally read this type of book, I was drawn in by the synopsis, and am so pleased I did.
I loved the main character Ruby, and would love to see her fulfil her dream of college, and beyond. She’s a very level headed individual and, I feel, ahead of her time. The difficulties written about Ruby living in America in the early 1950’s was very well portrayed. I have recommended this book to a friend

What an amazing debut novel this turned out be full of the atmosphere of the American dream it is a book to relish and enjoy. At its heart it a real whodunnit set in a time when women were supposed to be only that and racism was in full flow it did at times make for uncomfortable reading.
I loved the character of Ruby the “help” she had so much fire in her belly whilst trying hard to save for college amidst a climate of not only being female but also being black. The plot which is the disappearance of housewife Joyce Haney was well thought out and kept me on my toes throughout, it was written from different points of view and this gave the read an added interest as the characters were all well crafted and created atmosphere and depth throughout.
So for me this was an excellent read more than just a mystery but a glimpse into a very different time and I can thoroughly recommend.
Many thanks to Inga Vesper I loved the book and hope to hear more from you in the future.
My thanks also to NetGalley and Bonnier Books UK, Manilla Press for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

In 1950s suburban America, a housewife goes missing one afternoon, leaving a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. Suspicion turns towards Ruby, the young, black help who is first on the scene, but Ruby is not the killer and she sets out to discover who is.

In a world where black people, and women in particular, should know their place, Ruby is ideally placed to pick up clues, as no one would, for one minute, think that she was bright enough nor significant enough to work out what was going on. It is only a hardened east coast detective who considers that Ruby might have some useful information to share. Together, they form an unlikely alliance in order to solve the case.

The book has a lot to say about women and their place in society at that time. Looking back, the prejudice is hard to fathom but at the time it was considered normal.

I found the first 2/3 of the story really interesting and found it hard to put down. However as the clues began to stack up and fingers were pointed in many different directions, I found it harder to keep track and began to lose interest.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to netgalley for the chance to read this book.

When Joyce Haney vanishes from her home leaving behind her two children. The book is tells the story of what happened in the long afternoon after Joyce went missing telling it from 3 people’s points of view and how their lives intermingle with one another to discover the truth.

‘Stepford Wives’ come to mind in this cracking good read from Inga Vesper. One of my best reads for 2020. Set in the summer of 1959 in a nice Californian neighbourhood where everything on the surface is rosy. A maid Ruby Wright arrives at Sunnylakes for her daily housekeeping job to find two terrified children and a blood stained kitchen in their wake and a missing mother. Mick Blanke the Detective is assigned the case, trying to prove himself after misdemeanours in the NYC police and forms an unlikely bond with Ruby who may hold the key to the disappearance of Joyce Haney. Set in a time of racial and gender inequality, this kept me gripped to the end. Would make a great TV drama or movie.

Thanks to Netgalley the author and Manila Press publishers for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review

Quite a good story but slow going in places, you can see what is happening but can the police see it all...

Oh, this is good. There's certainly influences from other stories, some I could name, others I couldn't. It's slick and well paced. It has the seedy glamour of all the old B&W film noir detectives stories of days gone by-I could almost hear the detective narrating it to himself! The righteous indignation of the civil rights movement just adds another nail-biting layer.

Absolutely loved this....just what I needed to end 2020 on and start the new year with!

Definitely gets your brain working and makes you want to read quicker to find out just what the hell was going on!

Take a leafy suburb of California, wilting in the heat of 1959, add a few bored housewives; throw in a bright, articulate girl, and a stereotypical detective, finally sprinkle with a missing housewife, and you have the recipe for a detective thriller. It all sounded so promising, especially when the opening line is from Joyce, the missing housewife....

“Yesterday, I kissed my husband for the last time. Of course, he does not know this. Not yet. In fact, I have a hard time believing it myself........”

Joyce, young, attractive, married to but bored with Frank, has two beautiful little girls but yearns for something more. A talented, but thwarted, artist she strains at the confines of her marriage. Has she just walked away from it? How could she leave those kids? Is she dead? There was blood in the kitchen after all...

Ruby, the bright articulate girl is a Negro, obviously from the wrong side of town, is employed as “the help” by Joyce and her neighbour, Mrs Ingram. She yearns to go to college, is befriended by Joyce, treated as less than dirt by Mrs Ingram.

Meet Mick Blanke, the detective who did Something Wrong at his previous precinct out East and so was transferred out to the boonies of Santa Monica. Blanke doesn't follow leads, is frustrated by his boss (aren't we all) and relies too much on Ruby's astute observations and determination, which he then ignores because, after all, she's black and doesn't really count.

Although this novel is atmospheric and quite claustrophobic, it is very much plot driven with clues scattered about here and there, it lacks depth in the characters who are all flat and lacking in – well, character. The emphasis on Joyce's purchase of art materials seems irrelevant and I, too, would be bored by Frank who doesn't seem to do anything useful at all. Chief Murphy constantly berating Blanke for any number of reasons is just another stereotype. The dialogue is often stilted and cheesy, the writing itself is sprinkled with grammatical errors which really grated on me.

The novel, to me, seems to be a comment on past attitudes: black people are treated with contempt and have no place in “decent society”. Men go to work, women stay at home and to heck with any ambition they may have. If that is the reason behind this book, it works pretty well, but if it's a detective story it's well, it's a bit of a limp lettuce.

I trundled through it to the end....but I had to know if my theory about Joyce was right...I was, sort of.

My thanks to Netgalley for an ARC download.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this work. Unfortunately, it did not turn out to be my cup of tea. Would use it in an English class to demonstrate the use of similes and metaphors as it had some of the most spectacular examples I’ve come across recently, and lots and lots of them. The characters were a bit cliched although I felt Ruby was more rounded than others.
Sadly, the story just didn’t do it for me although I could have been missing the point and the whole novel was intended to be a bit tongue in cheek.

Set in Santa Monica and it’s suburbs in 1959, the plot is very like a black and white police investigation movie. I mean this in a good way. The plot moves along, revealing all the racial discrimination, the male/female stereo types, and class divides of the time. It was interesting to see how before the influence of the internet, computers etc crime solving was carried out.
Nicely written, an enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this in exchange for an honest review. The novel is set in 1959 suburbia California and the story is told via 3 viewpoints Joyce the missing woman, Ruby the hired help and Mick the detective. I very much enjoyed the style of writing the switching view points really helped build the story until you discovered the truth of what happened that long afternoon Joyce that went missing.
I felt the setting of this story was very poignant it showed the divide in society at the time between the black community and the middle class white families as well as the stereotypes that meant the police of the time jumped often to the wrong conclusions. It was upsetting to read and sad to think some elements of this still remain even to this day, I think the timing of this book is perfect as it certainly makes you think.
Overall I very much enjoyed this book and cannot wait to see what else Inga Vesper writes I would highly recommend.

Set in a Santa Monica suburb in the 1950s where young white couples are living the American dream, this debut novel is something different. The main character is Ruby, a young black woman who wants to be a teacher and is desperate to earn enough money to get to college. She works as a help for various women and she must have the patience of a saint to do so. The way she is treated is despicable. One afternoon she turns up to a job to find one of the young children outside and inside the house a baby is screaming. When she investigates, she finds the kitchen floor covered in blood. When the police come she is arrested. No evidence against her, just the fact that she is there and she is black. Luckily for her, the police officer in charge of the case is not a rampant racist and she is released.

I was riveted by the beginning of this book. The setting is well portrayed as are the racial tensions. There is a real mystery at its heart. What has happened to Joyce? Has she been abducted, is she dead or is she responsible for her own disappearance? Ruby is a great character, determined to better herself and also to find out what happened to Joyce, the only white woman to treat her as a human being. The police officer could perhaps have had a little more depth. I didn't feel I got to know him throughout the story. I wasn't as taken by the ending as I was by the beginning though there are some heart stopping moments there. Overall, a good solid read and I would read more by this author. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This novel, set in an antiseptic, Stepford-style Santa Monica suburb and South Central LA In 1959, is fairly standard crime fiction plot-wise, but stands out for its portrayal of racism and its look at the White middle class American Dream . Ruby Wright, who travels to Sunnylakes to clean houses discovers a crime scene and is promptly arrested for being black and being it here. It is Ruby who digs beneath the accepted facts, spurred on by Detective Mick Blanke and the offer of a reward. Inge Vesper makes a good case for Ruby’s investigations (she needs money to go to college and Joyce the missing-presumed-murdered woman was nice to her), but it feels a bit of a stretch in view of the danger it puts her in as a young Black woman in an all white neighbourhood. This was in the back of my mind the whole time. (There is a drawn out denouement scene which, in reality, would almost certainly have resulted in the death of a young black man at the hands of the police.) That being said, it is a pacey read which would work well as a film adaptation.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, Ruby is a great protagonist. The most jarring part of it was honestly for me the easy and casual racism of the time which in a time of BLM and more awareness of racial injustice is hard to read. The story wasweld written, the detective was definitely ahead of his time in his attitudes towards black people and his relationship with Ruby is encouraging if nothing else.

A decent little whodunit with much to enjoy. I particularly liked the sense of time and place, 1959 Santa Monica came alive, the oppressive heat of summer and the oppressive feeling of living in an age when the middle class white male was all powerful, with the women trapped in their domestic roles, their homes feeling like beautiful cages. The plight of black folks, completely powerless, trying to eke out a life while subservient to whites makes for suitably uncomfortable reading, all these things were very well portrayed. On the down side, some of the characters were a bit flat, particularly the detective, and some of their actions were somewhat random and didn't ring true, just used as a convenient way to move the plot forward. I also feel the ending dragged on too long and felt almost farcical, though ultimately satisfying. 3 stars and I would definitely read more from this author. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

A murder mystery and a psychological thriller. Joyce seems to have it all. However her life is not what it seems. The characters are all battling their own demons but the story kept me gripped to the end.

What a place - 1959 Sunnylakes California sounds lovely right? But all gets dark when housewife Joyce Haney is found by the help Ruby Wright, who is black, the police look into Joyce's disappearance and of course, Ruby is a key character whose life is examined more closely than most as she is black and a suspect.

What I enjoyed in particular was the fact that Joyce was a slightly unreliable narrator as you find out what happened when she disappeared.

Vesper captures 1959 California very well - very Stepford Wives and 'The Help' as it reveals and looks into the social and racial divides of the time.

Love that cover!

This a was a lovely story and easy going to read which was set in the 1950s. On a hot summers day, a housewife goes missing and Detective Blanke and Ruby the maid are determined to solve the mystery. The book kept me guessing to the end and I felt the racist divide was well portrayed. The characters were well defined.