Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon is a very highly recommended mystery set in a home for the elderly.
"There are three things you should know about Elsie. The first thing is that she’s my best friend. The second is that she always knows what to say to make me feel better. And the third thing...might take a bit more explaining."

Eighty-four-year-old Florence Claybourne and Elsie have been best friends their whole lives. Now they are both at Cherry Tree, an assisted living facility for the elderly. The novel opens after Florence has fallen in her flat and is waiting for someone to find her and help. While lying on the floor, she thinks about a secret from the past and reexamines her life. Part of her thoughts turn to recent events, including the new resident who may not be who he claims to be and may, in fact, be someone from her past who is out to get her now.

The main narrator is Florence, but the narrative perspective occasionally shifts to Miss Ambrose, an administrator at Cherry Tree, and Simon, the handyman. Florence is an unreliable narrator, although it may be due to her age, because she just can't remember all the facts. Her friend Elsie encourages her to concentrate and try to remember all the facts. Elsie is a constant, positive and encouraging friend to Florence. Florence can be opinionated and cantankerous as she talks to others, walks the readers through her daily movements at Cherry Tree, and tells the story of her past. The suspense builds as it appears someone is trying to make Florence look senile and make others doubt her observations.

The quality of the writing is excellent. The narrative moves at a steady pace, although the pace seems to pick up once the mystery takes an ominous turn. I appreciate the way facts are revealed as Florence is encouraged by Elsie to slowly prod her memory to recall events from long ago. There are some coincidences that may seem unlikely, but the longer you live, the more often it appears that surprising coincidences seem to happen. I also like the characters Cannon has created in Three Things About Elsie. The third thing about Elsie is remembered/answered, but not until late in the novel (although some readers may guess it earlier).

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Scribner.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2018/08/three-things-about-elsie.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2487003161
https://www.librarything.com/work/20557060/book/159167343
https://twitter.com/SheTreadsSoftly/status/1027277936230100992

Absolutely adored this story about the stubborn, but kind, Florence and her best friend Elsie. Her reflections are full of wisdom and wit and the narrative is full of tension and slow reveals that keep the pages turning. The prose itself is very beautiful and full of whimsical metaphor reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland.

Full review to come!

This made me laugh, this made me cry. Having witnessed both of my grandmothers age and lose their memories watching Florence go through this story made me think of them. It also reminded me of my own best friend and how long we have been in each other’s lives and how much more life we have to go. It’s an inspiring story about love between friends, loneliness, what independence means to us as individuals and aging. This is definitely worth the read and makes you evaluate your own relationship to age, numbers and what it means to live a full life.

Another gem of a book by Cannon! Meet the people of Cherry Tree, a home for the elderly. Is Flo an unreliable narrator, does she have dementia, or she telling the truth and no one is listening?? A beautifully written story about lasting friendship, aging, loneliness and reflection. Rife with secrets that have been hidden for a lifetime. These secrets are revealed slowly as Flo recounts the story of her life while waiting for help after taking a fall. Full of humor, a mysterious stranger, and an eccentric cast of characters this was a delightful read!

Before I start the review, you should know that I have an affinity for the number three. Sometimes I notice I have three of the same item in my grocery cart, or when I buy something I really, really like, I want to have three of it- a back-up, and one more back-up for good measure. I never take this too far, but the number three is fun for me. A bonus! 😂 So when I saw the title Three Things About Elsie, I knew there would be something extra special about this book.

84-year-old Florence is our narrator, and at the beginning of the novel, she has just fallen in her assisted living apartment. Poor Florence is on the floor waiting for someone to find her, and in that time, she worries about about a terrible secret that may be exposed. She tells the reader the following about Elsie, her best friend:

“There are three things you should know about Elsie.
The first is that she’s my best friend.
The second is that she always knows what to say to make me feel better.
And the third thing…might take a little bit more explaining.”

There is an underlying mystery to be solved, and these elderly women, along with their friend Jack, set out to solve it. Florence and Elsie are thick as thieves, lifelong friends, true to each other, and a testament to friendship.

As the mystery is examined, Florence notices things are missing, out of place, out of the ordinary, and if she brings this up to the people who care for her, the threat of moving her to a new place with more supervision is looming (because clearly the problem “must” be memory loss due to her age). Florence’s memories of the past are hazy and not always exact, which can be frustrating for her, and understandably so.

Overall, I found Three Things About Elsie to be an uplifting story about the love between friends, aging and challenges with memory, loneliness and the needs for independence, importance, and utility at any age.

My mom usually reads my reviews, and I say this with the gentlest heart. The biggest takeaway from this book for me personally reinforces something I strive for (and not always successfully): to always let my aging parents know they are vitally important in my life. They have many useful and helpful ideas to offer, and they continue to be wise to the ways of the world.

Thank you to Scribner for an electronic copy via Netgalley and to Taylor at Books With Taylor on Instagram for a physical copy win.. All opinions are my own.

Joanna Cannon has written a rather sad story about aging. While this does contain a mystery, this is lonely story of one woman in her later years, dealing with memories and the struggle and acceptance of getting older.

Florence has fallen in her home and waits to be rescued. She lives at Cherry Tree Home for the Elderly and hates it. She recently been put on probation from the head administrator with the threat to be moved to another, less desirable, facility. One day, a new resident arrives - and looks exactly like someone from Florence (and Elsie's) past - someone who has been dead for many, many years.

What Cannon does with Florence is remarkable, getting inside her head and her heart. It's sad, watching people who were once full of life fall into older age. Florence is the story of everyone, we all have secrets and pain.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Reading a book written in the first person with a main character who has dementia can be difficult. And the start to this book was just that: a bit scattered and undecipherable. Thankfully, the story quickly begins to coalesce as Florence tries to put together pieces of her memory that have been awakened by a familiar face from her past. That is part of the story. The other part is about getting old. And the other part is about friendship. But Florence isn't the only story being told and that adds a nice wholeness to the book. I was particularly impressed with the little tie-ins that Ms. Cannon included as the story went along. A nice reminder that we are all connected in one way or another.

Oh Lord, I would love to have a friend like Elsie. Someone to listen to me any time of the day or night. Someone to sort out all my confusion, someone to help me remember, someone who gently reminds me to calm down and think before I rage against the moon. What a very special friend.

I loved this book, I loved the characters, I loved that it reminded me to persevere, listen carefully, not judge too quickly, and to be kind especially when patience wears thin. The story was everything it should be, everything it needed to be and yet I wanted more. My fault, Joanna Cannon told this story with humor and compassion and managed to insert more than a little intrigue. It sometimes seemed to be a great puzzle with only the corners fitting together but pieces get turned over and fitted in and the “aha” moments are satisfying.

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for a copy.

Florence and Elsie have been best friends since they were children.  Their lives have been intertwined since a chance meeting on a bus and through tragedy in their adult lives.

Now in their eighties, the two forever friends live at Cherry Tree, an assisted living community for the elderly.  
Florence has fallen in her apartment and while waiting for help to arrive she looks back over her life, sharing secrets about her past, including one she has never shared with anyone.
The story wanders between the past and present; Florence's memory can be somewhat spotty so she relies on Elsie to help her remember the important details of the past. 

A man has recently moved into Cherry Tree, giving her a fright.  She's sure the man is Ronnie Butler ...but Ronnie drowned in 1953.  This man goes by the name of Gabriel Price.
It's only when Mr. Price moves in that Florence notices items in her apartment are moved from their normal places and things appear that she doesn't remember buying.

Florence knows her memory isn't great but she's worried that her increasing confusion and these new events will send her to Greenbank, a facility which is basically the end of the road for senior care.  Ms. Ambrose, the director of Cherry Tree, is keeping close watch on her and has placed her on a month long probationary period to determine if she's fit to stay.

As Florence and Elsie attempt to find out the truth about new resident Gabriel Price, we learn about the man he resembles, Ronnie Butler, and what happened the night he drowned.

A charming tale of friendship, loyalty, and aging with a mystery that unravels leisurely as Florence shares her story.  I loved that small, "ordinary" details mentioned in passing later became connected in the grand scheme of the story and tied together characters in a surprising way.

Fans of Cannon's first novel, The Trouble With Goats and Sheep, will not be disappointed with her latest story once again centered around a mystery and a strong theme of friendship.

Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I finished this book after skimming through large parts of it because I had figured out the one important thing about Elsie very early on.
Elsie is Florence’s best friend for the past thirty years and helps her to remember things along the way.
Florence is 84 years old, lives in an assisted living home, has fallen and is waiting to be found and for an ambulance and is thinking about recent developments in her life
There is a mystery involved also which lends to some funny moments.
This book deals with aging, memory loss, and friendship among other things.
I must say I enjoyed this authors “The Trouble with Goats and Sheep” much more.

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for the ARC!

This is a wonderful story that takes place in a nursing home and features 84 year old Florence. When I started reading I was confused and rechecked the title because from that I deduced the story would feature Elsie. Elsie is Florence's best friend and she has relied on her advice and council for years. When Florence falls she starts rethinking her life and wonders if her past secrets will ever come to light if she dies. Wonderfully written, it does show both highlights and lowlights of nursing home living. There are moments of humor and sadness mixed into Florence's story and I think older readers will reflect a little on what ifs in their own pasts. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review

3.5 stars.

In Three Things about Elsie, Florence, a resident at a nursing home, is looking back on her life and recent events, which have been dominated by a mystery that she and her friends Jack and Elsie set out to solve.

The genre of this novel is hard to pin down. It's somewhere between a cozy mystery and a character exploration, both of which it does well. Three Things about Elsie is at turns funny, touching, and even exciting. Having Florence as the main narrator of a mystery sets it apart from other cozy mysteries as she seems to be in the early stages of dementia and is an unreliable narrator, so the reader is constantly looking for clues to the mystery as well as to the validity of Florence's evidence. I thought this was well done and Florence was sympathetically portrayed, sometimes tragic, sometimes gutsy, and continually determined to get to the bottom of things.

However, there is a "twist," that in my opinion was exceedingly obvious from the beginning and just brought the whole story down as it was just silly and completely unnecessary. This lowered my rating because I can't get over how much I dislike these sorts of plots in novels, despite enjoying everything else about this book.

Wonderfully written tale of an elderly woman and her friends as they face dementia and try to solve a long standing mystery. Flo is already unhappy at the Cherry Tree Home; except for her friend Elsie. everyone treats her like she's decrepit. Then Gabriel Price turns up- except he's not Price, he's Ronnie Butler and off we go. Flo and Elsie team up with Jack to untangle the story of what happened to Elsie's sister Beryl and how Butler could still be alive since everyone knows he drowned. Along the way they visit Whidby (some terrific local color) . The book is largely narrated by Elsie but Simon, a young man who works at the home is also a nice voice (I loved his comments about the afghans). I admit I figured out the key spoiler but I wasn't so sure of the rest of it. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This is a very good read that dips occasionally into a spot which will make you think of the mortality of your elderly relatives and yourself and how we should all be treated.

I'd say I'm at about 2.5 stars on this one. We learn the first two things about Elsie pretty quick, and then I think the third is supposed to be a surprise, but honestly I knew almost straight away. I think that may have lessened my enjoyment as I kept waiting for something surprising throughout the story. Now the story itself was interesting and I did love Florence - she was really a total hoot and quite honestly is the reason I kept turning the pages. Her voice was immediately strong and I could picture her from almost the first sentences. But having guessed what was going on with Elsie right away I felt like the rest of the story just dragged through most of the 450 pages. I'm wondering if this would have been a better read if we knew the three things right at the start and then the plot had a bit more twists and a bit of suspense??

I wanted to love this book. I was interested at first. I wanted to find out about this mysterious man who arrived at Cherry Tree retirement home and concerned Florence and her friend Elsie so much. However, about half way through the book it seemed to be slow going and it was hard for it to keep my interest. I finished this book and I did like finding out the mystery, but it was a bit hard to get through the middle of the book. While I liked this book, I did not love it.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Scribner for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

Three Things About Elsie is a novel about aging, friendship, with a side of mystery. The first half of the novel had me interested, however, it was particularly hard to find much interest I sticking with the second half. I felt the novel dragged on and felt just flat and grey. I wasn’t much interested in learning about the third thing about Elsie.

Elsie is the best friend of Florence, who is slowing loosing her memories as she ages. Long ago, Elsie’s sister and Florence’s friend, Beryl died by drowning and Florence seems to think it wasn’t an accident. She and Elsie attempt to solve their mystery of sorts, but in the context of an assisted living facility.

This book is well-written with well developed characters, but it failed to WOW me. This is a book about the characters, their friendships and living with a secret.

I wish some of the revelations would have be given to the reader sooner, to hold their interest. I just didn’t care much by the time it was all revealed.

My thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Florence and Elsie are in assisted living of some kind. Florence is given a month's "probation" to start to socialize and participate in life at the home or she will be sent to a different facility that is more of a nursing home. At the same time, a man from her past moves into the home...but that is impossible because he died years earlier. This has a bit of an Elizabeth is Missing vibe to it. I liked this one a lot. I really liked the little unknown interconnections between characters that started popping up later in the book. Four stars.

A lovely, sweet story about coming to grips with the past. Charming characters and a poignant reckoning.

I didn’t love this book but I did enjoy the book overall. Parts of the book dragged but at the end, it all came together, as I was hoping it would. Dementia is such a sad, terrible disease and I know what it’s like, with my mother in an assistant living place living with it. This book made me think of her and all the residents I talk to when I go there to visit her. They love to talk about the old days and who knows if what they are saying is true or not but they certainly believe it as they are telling their stories. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this book for my honest review.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Sad, funny at times and what feels like a realistic portrait of aging and memory loss and loneliness, this story is also about the beauty of friendship. There’s a mystery to be solved, just as in her debut novel, [book:The Trouble with Goats and Sheep|40606286], except this time the amateur sleuths are octogenarians and not young girls. Eighty four year old Florence has fallen in her flat at the Cherry Tree Home, an assisted living facility for the elderly. While waiting for help to come, she tells us about some of the mysterious things that have been going on at the home and the appearance of a man from her past, a past she is not always clear on but her long time friend Elsie is always with her to help. Aided by Elsie and her friend Jack, one of my favorite characters, Florence sets out to solve the mystery. Not everything seemed to be as Florence remembered with secrets too painful to remember. It wasn’t difficult to guess a few things, especially the third thing about Elsie that Florence doesn’t tell us, but I was a little surprised at the end. Piecing together the things that happened in her past felt like it took too long. The things that came through the most for me were Florence’s feeling of isolation when she thought no one was listening and her desire to maintain her dignity. These are things any of us who have elderly loved ones need to keep in mind. While I liked The Trouble With Goats and Sheep more, this is worth reading.


I received an advanced copy of this book from Scribner through NetGalley and Edelweiss.