Chapter Forty-Nine by Michelle Powers
Compelling/Comprehensive/Intriguing
Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Mystery/Thriller
In the wake of disturbing and unexpected news, Emma Donovan returns to her home town to attempt to prevent the past from being repeated, and also visit someone she hasn’t seen for a quarter of a century so as to have no regrets, if what she has learned has any truth to it. With doubt firmly planted in her mind, she is reticent to act immediately, but when she sees something on the way to work, she is transported back to a memory from her childhood, and is compelled to investigate just what the correlation is between what she has seen, and what she recalls. However, in doing so, she is about to unearth a truth about someone she thought she could trust, a discovery about herself and the real reason behind the incidents that occurred all those years ago. 
I have never been a big reader of mystery or thrillers but decided to try it as a new genre earlier this year. Michelle Powers’, ‘The House of Secrets’, piqued my interest almost immediately, and I was gripped. So it was a ‘no-brainer’ that I was always going to read ‘Chapter Forty-Nine’. I liked the fact that it was a fairly short novel, as I wanted a quick read. The chapters were a nice length and worked well with the genre, the suspense and the absorbing narrative. As soon as Michelle reveals Emma’s reason for being back in her home town, I was fascinated to read the rest! 
The fact that from the off, it is made apparent that Emma is a forty nine year old woman grappling with her hormones, instantly gave me the ability to relate to this woman, as I am the same age, in exactly the same situation. I too feel incredibly old, and I am an over-thinker! I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book with a character that I have been able to relate to so much. However, is (peri) menopause the sole reason for the way she feels? We learn that because her returning to the town of Blackthorn is so recent, she hasn’t yet made any acquaintances, Christmas is on the horizon, and she fears that she will be spending it alone. She sets out to her work place and drives by an incident which prompts flashbacks. Once she arrives at work, feeling disturbed by what she has seen, and after logging on to her system, she investigates what she has seen on the internet. After making her excuses, she decides to return home, also taking her anxiety medication. She decides that the only course of action is to rekindle a contact from twenty five years ago, when she originally lived in Blackthorn, someone who will be able to assist her. However, she fails to think it through, and ends up having to confess to being aware of issues in relation to what he tells her. I did at this point wonder how she wasn’t aware that she was harbouring information that she should have disclosed, even if she hadn’t taken it seriously to begin with. But then given that Emma had all those years ago been in close proximity to someone she had also been trying to avoid, as the author states, I was not that surprised.
This author is very good at giving the reader a number of characters, a scenario and all through the book, giving the reader legitimate reasons for changing their minds several times about the reason for something occurring or who the guilty party is. As such, at this point in the book when she gives Emma’s background, I was conceited enough to think that I had solved the case at this early stage. Her contact, Ryan, seems overly concerned for her wellbeing and he also seems overly agitated at the news she hasn’t yet told anyone. Not to mention, having been extremely helpful with her relocation plans, when staying in Blackthorn became impossible. It is evident that there had been some sort of attraction though, at least on his part. He also suggests that they go out sometime, which I thought inappropriate for a first conversation in what was just under a gap of time that amounted to half her life span. I could understand it when she thought to herself that she hadn’t known how to address Ryan after such a long time, and also the situation. He, apparently had no such worries. When she mentions to him how old she is now, and says ‘I’m up to chapter forty-nine now, it’s all downhill from here’ – her mother always related to her age as chapters, which I think I will start doing – I knew that I would like her if she wasn’t just a character in a book, lol.
Every time, she rings Ryan with something to tell him, his astonishment at her foolhardy and reckless behaviour that further gives way to putting herself in an extremely tenuous situation, gives rise to his exclamation of ‘for f**** sake Em’! This became quite comical. Now however, I know why he was so eloquent with his profanities. 
When Emma is angry at being asked the most obvious of questions by Ryan, she again shows her naivety in thinking that he was purely her friend. She does realise the reason behind it, but her pride won’t let her give in that gracefully, until she realises she has no choice. Not being able to conceive that Ryan in fact has to juggle two sides to his persona, not something he was even expecting to have to do.
The chapters detailing what happened back in Emma’s early twenties, were well written and constructed, and had clearly been thought about. They were also sufficiently graphic, but not overly so. Emma’s connection to what went on was really what made it for me, and the relationships of those involved. I also enjoyed the continuity.
When her best friend Mary is introduced, I felt suspicious of her anyway, given the background information that the author has given by this point, but I also didn’t entirely trust how keen she was to help Emma, but maybe that says more about my friends, lol. She further cements Emma’s belief that Ryan was wrong to ask the things he did which annoyed me, as I felt that she was agreeing with her friend because she thought that that was what Emma would want, rather than thinking about it and making her see the logical side to the situation. I don’t think that her indignant attitude to Ryan’s stance was helpful.
When they realise that what alerted Emma to return to Blackthorn in the first place hasn’t come from the source she originally thought, my suspicions had been correct, and I was kind of surprised that neither Emma nor Ryan had realised before. Emma looks for information on the internet, which might provide her with a lead, and take the heat off her, but in doing so, feels that her actions are counter-intuitive, which I thought was logical given her original response to it all. This is where I began to have my suspicions about Mary and on meeting Casey, the information that the reader is fed about him is an example of Michelle’s excellent ability to frame all of her characters, at one point or another. The same also goes for Jason who I thought came across as jealous, petty and spiteful although, I couldn’t help thinking that he was right when he pointed out that given the reason that Emma said that they had come to his house, they weren’t adequately prepared. His background did give me a certain sympathy with him though. The narrative presents the reader with so many scenarios, a smart strategy to employ to keep the reader interested. As well as declaring that ‘being a woman sucks’, which I wholeheartedly agree with, Emma’s comment in the diner concerning the ages of the people now involved in this ‘reoccurrence’ was very funny! I liked the easy banter between the two girls, Mary teasing Emma about how quickly she seems to be collecting male suitors, when she’s only been back in town five minutes.
When Ryan rings her with information that further compromises Emma’s situation, I couldn’t help wondering if she was involved somehow, but then the reader is thrown off course with regards to the missing items and the rental company. The owner of the house in which Emma is living was a big shock, making me change my mind again!! When Ryan accompanies Emma to see the person that she had originally intended to visit, I was a little confused as to why he said to her that that person couldn’t hurt her, as she never hurt her in the first place. He was of course, just using every opportunity he had to be tactile. The connection that Emma then learns that exists between the targets of yesteryear and today was such a great parallel, and one I would never have seen coming.
The mention of ibuprofen also had me thinking, especially as it crops up many times, and that the tablets are brown. Whenever I’ve taken them, they’ve always been white, so I’m not sure if that was intended as a ruse, or they are different colours. That and the fact that when Emma enters the kitchen after Mary arrives at hers after work, she trips over her shoes, not realising they were there.
From Mary going out to Emma’s car to collect her medication, the whole thing seemed to become a little chaotic, rushed and far-fetched to my mind. I’m not sure if it would have been better had it been longer and given the end more time to play out. I had also wondered how Debra, Shane, Christa and Joanna, would have been known to Emma before it was explained via Ryan. However, as Emma had not been prone to doing what it took previously, it seems strange to me that she would do it now, regardless of the circumstances.I wondered how Ryan took care of Emma’s last actions and what happened to Mary.
The end scenario for Emma seemed a believable one, but the final twist seems like it was a pre-cursor to a sequel. Otherwise, I’m not sure what the point of it was. I would read a sequel, and for the most part, enjoyed this one. There are many elements of Michelle’s writing that she does well. I just struggled with the end.
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