Something Might Happen: A Novel [Hardcover]

Julie Myerson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 22, 2003

Something Might Happen is powerful literary suspense in the bestselling tradition of Helen Dunmore and Jane Hamilton. Out of the grief and confusion that follow the death of her closest friend, Tess seizes on a single individual.It is a detective-come to town to investigate the death-whose calm and clarity offer her hope. In coming to know him, Tess gradually unravels the extraordinary skein of secrets, evasions, and repressed passion that her life has become.Something Might Happen is a powerful exploration of grief fused with desire, and an unforgettable portrait of the tangled lives in a small town.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A senseless murder in a sleepy seaside town in Suffolk catastrophically disrupts the lives of two families in this rather predictable but artful novel by Myerson (Laura Blundy; Me and the Fat Man; etc.). The victim is Lennie, a potter and mother of two, who is found dead in a parking lot after a PTA meeting. Her grisly murder was presumably a random act, and the novel is primarily the story of the emotional reaction of those around her. Tess, the narrator and Lennie's best friend, is jarred from the idyllic domesticity of her life with her four children and husband Mick, and is forced to acknowledge troubling fault lines. It has been a year since she slept with Mick, and a flirtation with the police psychologist sent to comfort Lennie's grieving husband, Alex, turns into something more. Clinging to her infant daughter, Liv, as if to a lifeline-the physical sensations of motherhood are vividly evoked-Tess grapples with her complicated feelings for her husband and her children. Matters take a fantastic turn when Tess's daughter Rosa and son Jordan claim to have seen Lennie, and Rosa wanders off, plummeting Tess into new terror as the village, once a comfortable retreat, comes to seem a sinister dead end, a place trapped between sea and sky. The steady rhythm of Myerson's writing and her precise narration lend her story an elegant inevitability; the spare, smooth-flowing dialogue makes her characters spring vividly to life. Despite the well-worn plot, the author manages to create something rich and intimate, a tale steeped in the physical impulses and mental habits of family life.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Myerson's title is coy; something has already happened before this novel begins: Lennie, wife and mother of two, has been gruesomely and inexplicably murdered in her English seaside village. This event opens to scrutiny the lives of all who are close to her. Tess, Lennie's best friend and narrator of the story, becomes our guide, and her roiled emotions color the story. The entire town suffers from the loss and fear that the murder engenders as well as from the suspicions brought to the surface by the police investigation. Love, responsibility, passion, and grief are impossibly tangled, causing people to do foolish things and risk all that they value, exacting an additional cruel price before all is ended. This is a riveting and wrenching story told with beautifully rendered domestic detail. Myerson's writing is so strong that it's impossible not to see and smell what is happening, not to feel the power of the sea or the characters' emotions. Not easy to read, but hard to put down. Danise Hoover
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 Amer ed edition (October 22, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316779849
• ISBN-13: 978-0316779845
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,452,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Thought-Provoking Novel, July 6, 2004

By 

Veronica (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Something Might Happen: A Novel (Hardcover)

Something Might Happen is a tense and absorbing novel. It looks at what happens to the family and friends of a woman called Lennie after she is brutally murdered in a close-knit village in England. The story is told through the eyes of Tess, Lennie's best friend. As the book progresses we uncover a lot about Lennie and her husband Alex, as well as Tess and her husband Mick. Other characters also have a large part to play, notably Tess's four children, the police officers investigating the murder, the family liaison officer and Lennie's father, Bob.

At first I was startled with the way that the novel is written in the present tense, which is different from anything that I've read before. It was very effective in making the action seem real and up close and I got used to it quickly. The characters were complex and interesting although they often did things that were not good for themselves - but I guess that's grief for you.

The dialogue was faultless and really captured the way that each person was responding to the murder. The descriptions were also great - the ones for Tess's baby Liv really made her come to life in my mind. The tension grew and grew, but I was still not prepared for the ending, which was a real shock.

Overall Something Might Happen is a thought-provoking book. It makes you think about the fact that something can easily happen at any moment to fracture our world. It's not a whodunit as such but I think most fans of crime novels would like it - it falls into the psychological category. I'm certain that I shall remember the characters and plot for a long time to come.

JoAnne

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You can't take life for granted, October 23, 2003

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Something Might Happen: A Novel (Hardcover)

Isn't it always in the midst of everyday routine that fate steps in and changes everything? The obscure glitch suddenly becomes more sinister: someone is late or doesn't show up at the usual time. There is no explanation, but within hours, there is a phone call that changes a family forever, the façade of safety abruptly shattered.

At the best of times, we like to think we live as if every moment matters, but the truth is that we forget, caught up in the mundane tasks that fill the hours of the day. For two English couples living near the ocean with their children, their days are predictable, with young children to Shepard from one place to another, play dates and sports events. Brutality strikes a blow to this comfortable domesticity for one couple, when Lennie, wife of Alex, fails to return home one late evening after a meeting. When Alex phones Tess and Mick, their best friends, they begin the long descent into acceptance of the truth: that Lennie has been murdered, a senseless murder with no apparent suspect or motive. In addition, the body has been mutilated in a particularly gruesome manner.

Tess becomes the central figure in the drama, as Lennie's best friend and close to Alex as well. A grief counselor is assigned to Lennie's family and, because of his proximity to the unfolding personal drama, Lacey is in a position to monitor the emotional storms that are shaking the foundations of both families. Like Alex and Mick, Lacey is drawn to Tess, the mother of four, caring for a new baby, her other children and the only source of comfort for them all. But Tess is questioning her own role in the tragedy, whether she was Lennie's best friend, after all. She is also drawn to Lacey, who is all the more attractive because he isn't part of the emotional intricacies of the last few years. No matter what Tess decides personally, her choice will impact the future of each family.

As the protagonists struggle to reassert their daily patterns before Lennie's murder, it is hoped that the imminent burial of the young mother will put to rest the self-doubts and second-guessing of the last few weeks. But fate intrudes once more, another subtle twist provided by the skilled author, plunging both families into yet another trauma before they have properly dealt with the first. In this process, the author exhibits her consummate writing talent.

Myerson's style is remarkably uncluttered and the novel is structured in such as way that allows the reader to perch, like the proverbial fly on the wall, watching the story unfold. The character's forceful personalities create the texture of their relationships, for example, between Tess and her husband, Mick, Tess and her daughter, Rose. With minimal, never superfluous description, Myerson's characters define each scene with their actions. The reader is privy to the same sense of immediacy experienced by the protagonists, as vulnerable to the vagaries of fate as anyone in the story. This author virtually enables her reader's participation in the process, understanding Tess' motivation when deciding her future. Luan Gaines/2003.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This story never went anywhere..., September 3, 2008

By 

BookWorm (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Something Might Happen (Paperback)

This book started with a promising plot, but it never seemed to go anywhere. The way it was written, I never felt that the main character and Ted Lacey had any chemistry, so I was baffled as to why she was seemingly so drawn to him. Very unsatisfying ending, as well.

And the lack of quotation marks and commas was very distracting! Many times it was hard to figure out if the character was talking or just thinking something due to the lack of quotes. This is not standard British writing, so I don't know why it was written this way.

I gave this book three stars (instead of two) because I was interested enough in the premise to keep reading, but unfortunately there was no payoff in the end. Disappointing story.