Now Read This: “Three Things About Elsie,” by Joanna Cannon

They say elephants never forget, but this isn’t true for the porcelain figure in Florence’s apartment at the Cherry Tree Home, which never seems to remember where it belongs. And her elephant isn’t the only thing that keeps turning up in the wrong place. One day her book materializes in the fridge. The next, she finds 23 cakes she never bought shoved in her kitchen cabinet. The weird occurrences keep piling up, and the aids at Cherry Tree begin to suspect Florence is losing her mind. They plan to send her to Greenbank to suffer under the individualized attention it provides its residents, but all Florence wants is to be left alone. She has one month to prove she isn’t crazy, and this may be difficult now that Ronnie Long, a man who’s been dead for years, has moved into a nearby flat and adopted a new name, Gabriel Price.

With the threat of Greenbank hanging over her head and her best friend, Elsie, at her heels, Florence must uncover the truth Ronnie hides behind his new identity. She and Elsie decide to start at the beginning, the night Ronnie killed a girl named Beryl. However, to unearth her long-lost memories and solve this mystery, Florence must actually remember something about that night, which may be a struggle since she has enough trouble recalling what she did last week.

Cannon’s “Three Things About Elsie” has the feeling of a cozy mystery where the stakes aren’t too high for the amateur sleuths. Cannon, however, focuses on her characters and their relationships rather than the mystery they attempt to solve. Her dedication to creating these lively and sometimes mischievous personalities makes the novel easy to relate to and enjoyable to read.

If you would like to read something similar to this, you may want to look at “Home,” by Toni Morrison, which follows Frank Money as he struggles with his incarceration over an event he doesn’t remember. Another title to check out is “The Painted Drum,” by Louise Erdrich. In this story, an appraiser who has long been estranged from her Native American roots finds a drum that connects her to the history she has lost. Both titles are at the library in print and audiobook.