The Man Who Didn’t Call by Rosie Walsh

I may be slightly biased about this book, having met Rosie Walsh and her being a fellow alumna from the University of Birmingham English department, but I really enjoyed this book and was very impressed.  I would call it a romantic mystery novel and it really did keep me guessing.  I therefore don’t want to say too much as this is a book I could really spoil for a first-time reader!

All I’ll say is that Sarah, the central character, has fallen head-over-heels in love with Eddie, and he seems to feel the same way.  But then he is gone.  Disappeared.  Leaving Sarah to wonder, question, rage, doubt, obsess, despair, sob, and basically drive herself crazy trying to figure out what on earth happened.

Sarah is a well-drawn realistic character and the whole plot is very plausible whilst at the same time being interesting and compelling.  I was gripped pretty much from the start.  I found it easy to read and the characters very engaging, but it is also very clever and intricately plotted.  The story unfolds bit by bit, flashing back to the past as Sarah remembers her time with Eddie, but also moving forwards as life must inevitably keep on going.

I liked the occasional different voices and writing styles that peppered the novel, breaking up Sarah’s almost stream-of-consciousness narrative.  At times I thought Sarah’s anguish and neuroses might get a bit much, but her friends’ personalities and the changes in style give you a breather.  The fact that I felt like I needed a break from her shows how realistic and immersive Sarah’s emotions are.

**SPOILER ALERT**

As the reader you discover things in the present day time period at the same time and pace as Sarah, but you also know less than her, as certain information about the past is withheld or presented confusingly or incompletely.  I thought this was really clever, and certain assumptions I had made at the start of the book were completely wrong – my entire theory about the accident was turned on its head.  Once I had finished the book and discovered the truth of it all, I wanted to read it again, to pick up on any hints and oblique references and see it all in a new light.

Towards the end of the book, when you find out what really happened, and who the author of the letters is, the whole story fits together and you can appreciate the history and reasoning behind the characters’ various actions and behaviours.  Everything makes sense, and we are then waiting for it all to be resolved.  Some may disagree with me, and to a certain extent the ending was predictable, but I enjoyed the happy ending.  After the years of pain and grief, loss and longing that the two families experienced, and the more recent heartbreak of Sarah and Eddie, I felt they were owed some joy and a future.