A Year of Orenda – The Old You by Louise Voss

Well this is it. After one whole year of reading, reviewing and posting, we have reached the end of our Orenda journey … for now. it’s rather fitting that today, being Mandie’s birthday, we round off our Year of Orenda with Mandies thoughts on The Old You by Louise Voss. This was the first of the author’s books I had read and you can read my thoughts right here.

As this is a special occasion, not only are we sharing Mandie’s review, if you head over to Jen Med’s Book Reviews on Twitter and reply to our pinned tweet telling us your top read of 2020, you could be in with a chance of winning a bundle of books, including Mandie’s favourite reads of the year plus an exclusive #TeamOrenda bookmark.

I can’t believe this is it. That we have read and reviewed all 107 Orenda books over the course of this year. And Mandie has gone from 4 to 65 Orenda books read over the past twelve months too which is amazing. But not amazing enough … standby for updates soon …

But I digress. Back to why we are here. This is what The Old You is all about:

About the Book

Nail-bitingly modern domestic noir
A tense, Hitchcockian psychological thriller
Louise Voss returns with her darkest, most chilling, novel yet

Lynn Naismith gave up the job she loved when she married Ed, the love of her life, but it was worth it for the happy years they enjoyed together. Now, ten years on, Ed has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia, and things start to happen; things more sinister than missing keys and lost words. As some memories are forgotten, others, long buried, begin to surface … and Lynn’s perfect world begins to crumble.

But is it Ed’s mind playing tricks, or hers…?

Mandie’s Thoughts

Lynn Naismith is just about to start a new job when her husband Ed is diagnosed with Picks disease. Just as they should be looking to enjoy life, she knows things are going to change as his memory lapses and mood swings get worse. As past lives and secrets start to be revealed you have to wonder who do you believe?

Wow this book really kept me hooked and reading well into the night. The book flits between the present where Lynn and Ed are dealing with the devastating diagnosis and also delves into Lynn’s past where you find out that not everything in their relationship is as it seems and there are secrets that if they ever came out would cause problems and cast doubt on their entire marriage. Although you sense that something is not right it is only after Ed disappears that you see the full extent of just what that is. Until that point you cant help but feel for Lynn, as she realises that she will have to deal with Ed’s failing health and all that it means as she is determined to stand by him to the end.

Whilst I initially felt sorry for Lynn, the further I got into the book my attitude changed slightly as her actions both past and present shed a different light onto her character. It was only in the second half of the book that I think we truly got to know the real Lynn and just what she was capable of. There was just something about Ed that made him a character that I couldn’t feel anything for, even with his illness. There are hints of his true character throughout although you may not realise it to begin with. 

The pacing of this book whilst starting off slowly as the scene is set it does seem to pick up in both action and tension later on. It is a story full of twists and turns, and whilst I knew from the start that all was not as it seemed with either of the main characters, as soon as I thought I had the story sorted and the ending pegged, Louise managed to throw a spanner in the works of my reasoning and things were turned on their head. The ending itself was definitely not what I expected.

If you are a fan of psychological thrillers then you really should pick up a copy of The Old You and dive straight in.

About the Author

Over her eighteen-year writing career, Louise Voss has had eleven novels published – five solo and six co-written with Mark Edwards: a combination of psychological thrillers, police procedurals and contemporary fiction – and sold over 350,000 books. Her most recent book, The Old You, was a number one bestseller in eBook. Louise has an MA (Dist) in Creative Writing and also works as a literary consultant and mentor for writers at http://www.thewritingcoach.co.uk. She lives in South-West London and is a proud member of two female crime- writing collectives, The Slice Girls and Killer Women.

Books by Louise Voss