A gripping and beguiling debut reading group mystery for fans of Tigers in Red Weather and Tangerine.
'A remarkably assured debut. A tale of inequality, broken dreams and quiet desperation behind a picture-perfect facade' - Guardian
'A clever and absorbing debut by Inga Vesper, who bricks Joyce up in her perfect house, then smashes it to pieces with aplomb' - The Times
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Yesterday, I kissed my husband for the last time . . .
It's the summer of 1959, and the well-trimmed lawns of Sunnylakes, California, wilt under the sun. At some point during the long, long afternoon, Joyce Haney, wife, mother, vanishes from her home, leaving behind two terrified children and a bloodstain on the kitchen floor.
While the Haney's neighbours get busy organising search parties, it is Ruby Wright, the family's 'help', who may hold the key to this unsettling mystery. Ruby knows more about the secrets behind Sunnylakes' starched curtains than anyone, and it isn't long before the detective in charge of the case wants her help. But what might it cost her to get involved? In these long hot summer afternoons, simmering with lies, mistrust and prejudice, it could only take one spark for this whole 'perfect' world to set alight . . .
A beguiling, deeply atmospheric debut novel from the cracked heart of the American Dream, The Long, Long Afternoon is at once a page-turning mystery and an intoxicating vision of the ways in which women everywhere are diminished, silenced and ultimately under-estimated.
'Beautifully crafted, claustrophobic and compelling. As delicious as a long drink on a hot day' - Stacey Halls, bestselling author of The Familiars and The Foundling
'Breathtakingly stylish, hypnotic and masterfully gripping' - Chris Whitaker, author of We Begin at the End
'For fans of Revolutionary Road and Mad Men, this is an atmospheric tale of repression and style at the heart of the American Dream' - Stylist
