THREE THINGS ABOUT ELSIE by Joanna Cannon, Borough Press, £14.99 (ebook £8.99)

IT IS rare to come across a book that is thoughtful, insightful and filled with suspense until the last page.

In Three Things... we are introduced to 84-year-old Florence, who has had a fall in her nursing home, as she imagines who will find her as she lays dying.

Florence lives at Cherry Tree Home for the Elderly and keeps herself to herself, apart from her inseparable life-long best friend Elsie. Then a face from her distant past returns. She can’t put her finger on why though, and his name isn’t right.

Can Flo work through her tangled memories and remember longburied secrets before her time runs out? Cannon’s handling of Flo’s misadventures through her memory to find that missing block is both light and yet heartbreaking.

A joy to read.