By: Kerryn Mayne
Narrator: Annie Maynard
Macmillan Audio
ISBN: 9781250340108
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: 07/09/2024
Format: Audiobook
My Rating: 5 Stars (ALC)
Lenny Marks is excellent at not having a life.
She bikes home from work at exactly 4pm each day, buys the same groceries for the same meals every week, and owns thirty-six copies of The Hobbit (currently arranged by height). The closest thing she has to a friendship is playing Scrabble against an imaginary Monica Gellar while watching Friends reruns.
And Lenny Marks is very, very good at not remembering what happened the day her mother and stepfather disappeared when she was still a child. The day a voice in the back of her mind started whispering, You did this.
Until a letter from the parole board arrives in the mail--and when her desperate attempts to ignore it fail, Lenny starts to unravel. As long-buried memories come to the surface, Lenny’s careful routines fall apart. For the first time, she finds herself forced to connect with the community around her, and unexpected new relationships begin to bloom. Lenny Marks may finally get a life–but what if her past catches up to her first?
Equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming, Kerryn Mayne’s stunning debut is an irresistible novel about truth, secrets, vengeance, and family lost and found, with a heroine who's simply unforgettable.
My Review
You will fall in love with Kerryn Mayne's smashing debut, LENNY MARKS GETS AWAY WITH MURDER! Lenny is quirky, funny, intelligent, and has repressed trauma.
Follow her journey with this heartwarming story and her loveable and memorable character who will steal your heart from a talented new voice in fiction! A moving story of memories, trauma, truth, secrets, love, and loss.
About...
Meet Lenny Marks (formerly Helena Winters). Lenny is an intelligent, 37-year-old neurodiverse woman who loves routines. She is a devoted school teacher. Her favorite TV show is Friends, and her favorite book is The Hobbit.
Every weekday at 4 pm and never before, Lenny ensured her blackboard was clean and her classroom straightened before heading home. She rides her mint green Polygon Zenith bike and rides the twenty-one minutes to her Tree House—which was not actually in a tree as the name may suggest.
She purchased her groceries two afternoons a week (Mondays and Thursdays). She was a regular at McKnight's General Store. Ned was one of the few people outside of work she considered an acquaintance. Often in the company of Ned, Lenny would become discombobulated.
She plays Scrabble with her imaginary flatmate, watches Friends, and follows the same meal routine every day of the week. She also likes self-soothing word games to calm down and relieve stress.
Lenny's existence was many things: simple, predictable, and uneventful. She likes order.
When Lenny receives a letter from Adult Parole Board Victoria, she pushes it back into her bag. It wants to be read, but she ignores it. She knows that if she reads it, her life will get messy and change, and she does not like change. She wants to open the envelope, she realizes. She has to.
Was she a victim? She was Helena Winters, and the letter had reached its intended destination.
Lenny is very good at not remembering what happened the day her mother and stepfather disappeared when she was still a child. The voice in the back of her mind whispers, "You did this."
The author takes us back to June 1991, where we learn about Lenny's past, alternating from past to present (May 2022).
Lenny's past begins to unravel; raised by foster parents after she suffered a loss in her childhood and painful trauma. What memories has she repressed? Is it too difficult to remember? Long buried memories rise to the surface, and her carefully planned routines fall apart.
Will she have to connect with the community and friends and rely on others for the first time?
My thoughts...
I loved LENNY MARKS! The author grabs you from page one to the end with this creative, fun-loving, quirky, loveable character. Thought-provoking and compelling, the author tackles high-charged emotional topics mixed with humor with a heroine that will linger long after the book ends.
Mayne's writing is impressive, as is her well-developed cast of characters. She handles topics of mental illness, domestic abuse, trauma, and loss with sensitivity. The book is full of heart, deliciously entertaining and clever, packed with wit, mystery, and suspense. It is heartbreaking and heartwarming, an endearing and charming story. I can't wait to see what comes next from this newfound author.
Audiobook...
I had the privilege of reading this exceptional book and listening to the engaging and entertaining audiobook, narrated by Annie Maynard making the characters come alive for a superb performance!
Recs...
Lenny Marks is for fans of Sally Hepworth's The Good Sister, Elizabeth Berg's The Story of Arthur Truluv, Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and Fredrik Backman's Britt-Marie Was Here
Special thanks to St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, #MacAudio2024 and NetGalley for a gifted ARC and ALC.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: July 9, 2024
Praise
“Prepare to fall hard for Lenny Marks…[a] touching, absorbing debut.”
-firstCLUE
"With humor, heart and characters you come to love, this is a book you will devour now, and keep thinking about later!"
--Sally Hepworth, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Sister
“If you're looking for a quirky, clever heroine with razor-sharp wit, keen observations, and a heart that is too big for this world, look no further than Lenny Marks...Highly recommended!”
–Jamie Day, bestselling author of The Block Party
“Beautiful, painful and ultimately completely satisfying, this is a story of an unlikely heroine who rises up to heal the deepest of wounds. I’ll be thinking about Lenny for a long time.”
–Annabel Monaghan, bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script
"Devilishly fun...top marks for Lenny Marks!"
- Benjamin Stevenson, bestselling author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
“Fresh, funny, and compelling.”
–Richard Roper, bestselling author of Something to Live For (previously published as How Not to Die Alone)
"A rare gem of a crime novel: mysterious, funny, charming and heartwarming all at once. I would have happily been Lenny’s accomplice from the very first page."
--Amy Suiter-Clarke, author of Lay Your Body Down
"A brilliant combination of light and dark, charm and suspense. A debut you won’t forget!"
- Candice Fox, author of The Chase
"Compelling. Mayne breaks your heart and shows how sometimes life’s greatest mystery is the truth of our past."
- R.W.R. McDonald, author of The Nancys
"An incredible debut which will have you both laughing and crying . . . This is a blackly funny, tender-hearted story of the dark and light of human nature, and ultimately, love, friendship, family and happiness."
- Petronella McGovern, author of The Liars
"Kerryn Mayne takes readers on a suspenseful, deeply emotional, and sometimes humorous journey. Lenny is a unique and remarkable character, who will have readers cheering for her from the very first page.’
- Lisa Ireland, author of The Secret Life of Shirley Sullivan
About the Author
Author photograph by Kelly Dwyer Portraiture
Kerryn Mayne is an author, former wedding photographer and current police officer. When not at work attempting to solve crime, she is writing about it or preparing an endless stream of snacks for her four children. Kerryn lives in the bayside suburbs of Melbourne with her husband, children and a highly suspect lovebird. She only owns 12 copies of The Hobbit (for now).
She is on Instagram as @kerrynmayneauthor.
