Hallie Ephron

(Abandoned; not rated)

Two characters, an old woman named Mina and her neighbor's daughter, Evie, are about to have tea. The young woman fetches fragile heirloom china teacups from a kitchen cabinet (not from a china cabinet in the dining room): the tea and the cups are stored in the same place. At Mina's direction, she puts a tea bag in each cup, and the old woman pours boiling water into them. Then Mina says the tea needs to steep and accompanies Evie into the living room to show her the show more marble fireplace and the memorabilia on display.

They talk much too long for the tea to steep in small porcelain cups; and why isn't an elderly woman with fancy china cups and a sculpted marble and mahogany decor using a teapot just for the sake of it?

While they are still talking in the living room, the doorbell sounds (front? back?), followed by a sharp knock, and Mina "scuttled into the living room" (page 43) to escape her nephew. When did she leave the room? Where was she? In this detailed account of every move and practically every heartbeat, there's no mention of her departing from the spot in front of the fireplace, and certainly not returning to the kitchen. She's going to the living room while still in the living room.

The nephew finds her in the living room, and while they talk Mina hears Evie washing up the china teacups in the kitchen ("Mina heard water running in the kitchen and the tink of bone china"--which shouldn't be making a tink unless the pieces are striking one another) even though they have not yet gone back and drunk their tea.

This author is not paying attention. Relentlessly and often irrelevantly or superfluously descriptive, she nevertheless fails to track her characters' positions and has one of them hurrying into a room she has not left.

This was the third strike.

The first was requiring the reader to plow through immense quantities of descriptive detail that serves no apparent point.

The second was a flat-out factual error committed while showing off. On page 39 we read:

Evie got up and walked through, pausing to touch one of the fluted columns mounted on a half wall separating the dining room from the living room. A memory flickered. Before the fire, her parents' house had had columns separating the rooms, too, only theirs had been plainer, not topped with these Doric scrolls--volutes, to use the technical term.

Volute: a term I didn't know. But I do know--and of course verified anyway--that the Greek columns with the scrolls are not Doric. The Doric are the plain ones. The ones with scrolls (volutes) are Ionic, and the ornate capitals decorated with rows of curling leaves and scrolls are Corinthian. Doric, Ionic, Corinthian. I learned those terms in sixth grade. Like everything else these days, it's easily checked online (although I used a heavy American Heritage dictionary); but Hallie didn't, and her editor (did she even have one?) didn't.

The cover says: "A novel of suspense." By page 46 the only suspense of any kind is wondering whether this stiflingly inert story that isn't even a story is ever, ever going to go anywhere at all.

I might have given it a chance, even then; but it failed a simple continuity check on page 43. Three strikes and you're out. show less

There was an old woman (I'm annoyed the publisher opted not to capitalize the title but that doesn't reflect on the book's content) by Hallie Ephron delves into a world of old grudges, secrets, and wrongs that have never been set right. Ephron creates characters the reader wants to like but doesn't and characters the reader wants to hate but doesn't. Even her most unlikable characters show some sign of redemption however slight and her most likable characters prove to have flaws. I felt show more uncomfortable at times as I read there was an old woman because Ephron demonstrates how ridiculous people tend to treat the elderly by making assumptions rather than paying attention. Ephron weaves a mystery through the pages with the ease of exploring a life story rather than hitting the reader with a slew of gratuitous violence. I cheered on Mrs. Yetner and wanted to smack her nephew, Brian. Evie alternately annoyed and inspired me. At times I wanted to scream at her to open her eyes because she seemed to miss things right in front of her. Other times she seemed to figure things out faster than she should. And, she also did a few things that just seemed too thoughtless for someone of her intelligence like dropping a pair of glasses through a mail slot, but those things made her more human. There was an old woman reminded me how important it is to be respectful of one another and to keep a watch on how we allow stereotypes to influences our thoughts and behaviors. Ephron creates characters the reader wants to know more about. There was an old woman puts the reader into the hearts and minds of its characters as it immerses the reader in the world they inhabit. show less

Review of Uncorrected Proof

Despite her lawyer-husband’s propensity for collecting yard-sale “treasures,” professional organizer Emily Harlow and her friend Becca Jain are making de-cluttering their livelihood. They’ve given up their previous careers . . . teaching for Emily, nursing for Becca . . . to start their own business. Emily creates and posts freeze frame videos of vanishing possessions and prospective customers come to them seeking similar results in their own lives. As show more their client list slowly grows, the Freeze-Frame Clutter Kickers begin to build their reputation.

Emily cannot do anything about Frank’s growing stockpile of stuff since she and Becca have an inviolable rule that a person can only de-clutter their own things. Still, she frets over her husband’s growing accumulation of paraphernalia that’s rapidly filling the empty spaces of their home.

When Ruth Murphy needs her late husband’s storage unit cleared out and Quinn Newell has a garage full of belongings her husband won’t allow in their house, both women come to Emily and Becca for assistance. And despite these seemingly-straightforward requests for help, a bewildered Emily soon finds herself embroiled in a spiraling-out-of-control situation that may well cost her everything.

Although Emily seems to have cornered the market on too-dumb-to-believe decisions, the characters are credible; the writing is taut and compelling. The unfolding story addresses intuition and trust as it looks at how people judge others; at the same time, it inspires understanding and compassion. Unexpected plot twists, coupled with surprising reveals, keep the pages turning. As the suspense builds and the tension mounts, readers are likely to find that this creepy mystery, with its unique premise, sparks joy in their reading.

Highly recommended show less

I picked this off the shelf at the library because I liked the title. Imagine my surprise when an old woman featured in one of the lead roles. The secret to invisibility is to be a middle-aged woman; that’s when it starts, by the time you’re over 50 almost no one ever notices you. Mina, the woman in the story, certainly knows this. I liked her a lot and felt a great sympathy for how people treated her, something I’m careful about when dealing with my own aging parents. Despite their show more frailty, memory lapses or illness, most elderly people are still fully-functioning adults. Treating them like children does them a huge disservice and many of them get run roughshod because they lack the energy for confrontation.

Anyway, the writing was fluid and occasionally insightfully funny like when Mina is touring a retirement community (against her wishes) with her nephew and is feeling pretty down about the general decrepitude of the people so far when she turns a corner and finds that it isn’t “all shuffle and nap”. The underlying plot though, is easy to spot. Clearly someone or a team of someones wants people out of their homes so that the valuable real estate can be had on the cheap and turned into big profits. The question is who is dirty dealing. Again, it’s not too hard to spot the villain if you’re used to books with red herrings and people who are too good to be true. Enjoyable though and I’ll read more of Hallie Ephron if I can find more. show less