📖 Book Review ~ The Significant Others of Odie May by Claire Dyer

Matador
28 July 2021

My thanks to the author for my copy of this book

 

Any one of them could have murdered her... but who did?

On the night Odie May and her married lover are due to celebrate him leaving his wife, Odie goes out to buy a bottle of his favourite wine and, on her way home, is murdered by a woman in a lime green coat.

The next thing Odie knows is that she’s in a waiting room and there’s a man called Carl Draper saying he’s her Initial Contact. He is carrying a clipboard and invites her into an interview room.

Over the course of her interview, Carl and Odie track back to the significant others in her life to date to try and work out where she’s gone wrong, who might have killed her, and why.

In the meantime, Carl also shows Odie what’s happening in the life she’s left behind as her mother and her lover, Michael, learn of her death and manage the tricky days that follow it.

But nothing is as simple as it seems. Although Carl has it in his power to return Odie to the moment before she was killed, this comes at a price she may not be able to pay.

📖 My thoughts..

We first meet Odie May when she has been murdered by a woman in a lime green coat, this is no spoiler as it clearly says so in the blurb, but what then follows is the story of how Odie May found herself in that particular situation, clutching a bottle of red wine and wondering where her life went horribly wrong.

I think we all wonder what it would be like to shuffle off this mortal coil and what awaits us when we are gone and as a nurse I was often privy to people's thoughts when they had been 'brought back' following cardiac arrest but none of them could categorically say if there was anything to see on the other side. That's why it's been so interesting to meet up with Odie May as she is given the unique opportunity to look at her life, to re-evaluate her place in it, and to see the impact of her loss on those she has left behind.

As always, this talented author has given us something that is a little bit different and which makes us question what we know about Odie, who it must be said, isn't the most lovable of characters, however, the more I read her story and the more I warmed to her unique personality. I enjoyed how the story takes us through the relationships Odie has with her significant others, from her childhood, and beyond,  in those moments which have shaped Odie into the person we meet at the start of the story.

The Significant Others of Odie May is a well thought out thriller, with lovely attention to even the smallest detail, and by the end of the story I had really warmed to Odie, and I hoped that when faced with a choice of what to do next, she made the right decision.

About the Author

Claire Dyer’s poetry collections are published by Two Rivers Press, her novels by Quercus and The Dome Press. Her novel, 'The Significant Others of Odie May' is forthcoming from Matador in 2021. She curates Reading's Poets’ Café, teaches creative writing and runs Fresh Eyes, an editorial and critiquing service. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway, University of London and is a regular contributor on BBC Radio Berkshire. 

Twitter @CalireDyer1

Website

@MatadorBooks