Librarian and former combat nurse Gwendolen Kelling is approached by an old friend asking her to track down her missing teenage daughters in London.

[2] Anthony Quinn of The Guardian found "a slight disappointment" in what he called "the slapdash ending", but added that "Nonetheless, this book is one to savour, for the energy, for the wit, for the tenderness of characterisation that make Atkinson enduringly popular.

"[3] Anthony Cummins of The Guardian praised "the suppleness that enables Atkinson to segue from scenes of pitch-dark horror to a brisk 'what everyone did next' coda without sugar-coating the tale’s bitter kernel: it’s a peak performance of consummate control.

Leah Greenblatt wrote in the New York Times that the novel ...doesn’t surprise in the thrilling sui generis way of “Behind the Scenes” or “Life After Life”; no thunderclap revelations à la “Case Histories” arrive in the flurry of postscripts and ever-afters that make up its final pages.

[2] Sarah Chihaya of The New Yorker wrote that The book’s base ingredient is research-packed historical fiction, but there’s also a generous measure of mystery, a dash of romance, and a barely there float of playful authorial provocation.