I so enjoyed the first book I read by Veronica Henry last year that I put a few more of her novels on my wishlist, and was delighted to receive ‘High Tide’ for Christmas last year. Once again, a book by this author sat on my to-be-read shelf for quite a long time, but I finally started reading it a couple of days ago.
I finished this morning, and am already looking forward to reading a couple more books by this author which are still waiting on my shelf. It’s a lovely read, a character-based story revolving around four main likeable people who are all connected to a small town on the Cornish coast called Pennfleet. The town is fictional, but apparently loosely based on another real town in the area.
I did find it a tad confusing at first trying to remember who was whom. Kate is the person we meet first, a high-powered and very talented event organiser who lives in New York. She has flown to the UK for her mother’s funeral; Joy wasn’t particularly old, or ill, but had a nasty fall which was fatal. Joy and Kate were close emotionally, and Joy - whom we gradually get to know through other people’s comments and memories - was a lovely, selfless and hard-working woman who is missed by everyone she knew.
Sam is the next person we meet; he’s a widowed father of two teenagers, who gave up a career in medicine to bring his grieving children to a small town where they could make a new start. He loves to cook and runs a thriving shop that sells quite exotic food. Kate goes there to eat, and we learn a bit about them both as they introduce themselves. I liked Sam very much.
Then there’s Vanessa, whose husband Spencer has just died; his funeral is on the same day as Joy’s. Spencer was very wealthy, rather older than his wife, and although they liked each other well enough they had mostly drifted apart. Spencer’s ex-wife and friends have never really taken to Vanessa, so instead of going to the house to socialise with these people, she persuades one of the funeral drivers, Nathan, to take her to a bar and have a drink with her…
I never really came to terms with Vanessa, nor with Nathan who is hard-working and honest but didn’t seem entirely real. However I did very much like Mary, who has worked as housekeeper and general factotum for Spencer, and has become good friends with Vanessa. We learn a lot about Mary’s story too, struggling to keep her family after her husband lost his job.
That’s more about different people than a review would usually warrant, but I’ve mentioned so many because they got under my skin in different ways. There are other characters too, but I didn’t have much trouble distinguishing them; some are a tad caricatured, but that doesn’t matter in this kind of book.
The writing is good, the conversations believable, and the pace exactly right for reading either at odd moments or in longer periods. Kate has to come to terms with her past, as she starts to pack up her mother’s house and sort through her possessions; Vanessa and Nathan have to decide what to do in the present, and Sam is looking more towards the future, as he sees his teenagers growing up all too fast, and wonders what will happen when his nest empties.
My only slight gripe is that there's a little more bad language than I'm comfortable with, and one brief but shocking scene that Kate recalls from her past, with a very unpleasant usage of a 'strong' word.
Perhaps the ending is a tad too tidy, many things falling neatly into place for most of the people in the story, but I don't mind that at all. And in some respects the future is still somewhat open - I'd love to know what Kate is going to do, for instance. I gather the author has written other novels based in the same town, so maybe they will give a glimpse of what has become of these different people and their relationships.
Overall, I very much enjoyed reading 'High Tide', and have already put some more of this author’s books on my wishlist.
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