The Long Weekend: ‘By the time you read this, I’ll have killed one of your husbands’

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The women arrive for a girls’ night ahead of their husbands. There’s ex-Army Jayne, hardened and serious, but also damaged. Ruth, the driven doctor and new mother who is battling demons of her own. Young Emily, just wed and insecure, the newest addition of this tight-knit band. Missing this year is Edie, who was the glue holding them together until her husband died suddenly. Four perfect strangers. Three days. Can one weekend away change your life? The unputdownable new drama by one of Australia’s most beloved storytellers. Servant numbers had been dwindling even before the war as factories were offering better money and even good working conditions.

The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House, 1918

Looks can be deceiving, Simone. We all like to put on brave faces and pretend everything is alright when inside we are a ball of twisted emotions.” The “I” that the reader thinks is Edie is actually one of the men. He had killed Edie and thought he was Imogen’s real father. He was the one who sent the gift to the house. He arranged for the other men not to go on the first night. When John and Maggie, the proprietors of Dark Fell Barn receive a beautifully wrapped gift, and note for their next weekend guests, they are assuming it will be a pleasant surprise for them. After all, the instructions attached ask them to place the gift prominently on the kitchen table, facing the door, with letter leaning against it, so it will be the first thing they see when they enter the room, and stressed the importance of their attention to detail.

This was a nice contemporary story set in and around Perth, Western Australia. Beth is a young, single mother of Hudson who is 11 months old. Her older sister Poppy, convinces Beth to go on a weekend writer's retreat to do some 'infiltration' for her. I won't spoil the plot, but Beth reluctantly goes even though it is Poppy who is the aspiring writer. The note attached to the gift, claims that one of their husbands will be murdered that night, and with 📵 no cell service, the roads impassable due to the weather, and the dementia of their host John, causing additional confusion…the women must survive the night before they learn the fate of their spouses. I really don’t know how Fiona does it will a full time farm job and to produce a book a year and all that comes with making that happen, I certainly take my akubra off to her. Jamie was the atypical writer. Tall and buff, the man came from a family of football stars. While he may have had the same physical traits as his brothers, it was because he owned a gym. I admired Jamie’s dedication towards his business but unfortunately, this career had led him to treating women badly in the past. Now a little older and wiser, Jamie was embracing his creative side that came from his mother. He is at Jan’s retreat for the right reasons, but his past is catching up with him and cupid has an arrow ready for Jamie. Beth is a single mum, her reason for being at the retreat is her sister Poppy , she needs to get some answers for her sister and is not going to be stopped.

The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House 1918-1939

Jaimie is a personal trainer, looking for writing inspiration, who is surprised to see Alice at the retreat – it’s nothing the first time they’ve met. John Lucas, The Radical Twenties: Aspects of Writing, Politics and Culture. Nottingham: Five Leaves, 1997. ISBN 0907123171 (pp. 123-25)The Long Weekend was the first book by Fiona Palmer that I have read but certainly won’t be the last. It was a wonderful, character driven story about a group of people who couldn’t be more different. I loved getting to know them all and seeing how it would all come together in the end. It was emotional and relatable and I read it in 2 sittings. Wife and mother Alice, wants advice on crafting a memoir she hopes will reach women who share her experience of motherhood. When all three of their husbands are delayed, Emily, Jayne and Ruth set out to the remote Dark Fell Barn for their couples’ weekend alone. Finished! That’s the only unequivocally good thing I can say about this. I struggle to find any deeper meaning. I suppose the plotting was okay, but I didn’t like the style of the author revealing more a little at a time, in annoying bits and pieces. All the characters were either vile or whiny, or both.