Joy Moody Is Out of Time by Kerryn Mayne

Publisher's Synopsis

On her twin daughters’ twenty-first birthday, Joy Moody – proprietor of Bonbeach's premier laundromat – is found dead. Yet that is not the strangest thing happening behind the bright pink facade of Joyful Suds.

For much of their lives, Joy has been telling Cassie and Andie one big, fat lie: that they are from the future, and that when they turn twenty-one they will travel back to the year 2050.

What started as a colourful tale to explain how the girls came to live with her has now become a decade-long deception. Worse still, Joy has started to believe it herself.

The lie is certainly preferable to the truth she can’t face – about what happened to the girls’ real mother, and how far Joy's gone to keep them 'safe' . . .

With the twins’ twenty-first birthday fast approaching, and with Andie starting to have doubts, time is fast running out for Joy Moody. In more ways than one.

Excerpt

“Joy had once considered herself somewhat beautiful, but these days she considered herself more utilitarian than eye-catching. While she maintained her hair and nails, always had her eyebrows and top lip waxed, she didn’t make time for make-up or anything she deemed showy. Perhaps that was right up Brett’s alley, or maybe he was just not that fussy. She was long and lean and always had been, not shapely like her daughters, who glowed with youthfulness and purpose and in the summer tanned in a way she never had. It was obvious to her that they weren’t her biological children although she considered herself their mother in every other conceivable way.

She didn’t find Brett’s gaze flattering in the least. At fifty-six she was still angry at most men and would happily punch him on the chin. But that was unprofessional, and Joy Moody would do just about anything to avoid being considered unprofessional.”

My Review of Joy Moody Is Out of Time by Kerryn Mayne

Once again Kerryn Mayne has delivered a crime novel that relies on an offbeat protagonist to create quite the quirky mystery. Joy Moody is many things, but most of all she is an adoring mother to twin girls and those girls are about to turn 21, a milestone that’s not going to be marked in the usual way.

For starters, Joy Moody is the epitome of a controlling mother but she has taken it to the next level in her bid to protect her daughters. We pick up the story as the trio are sitting in their backyard waiting to be teleported to the year 2050, back to the future where Joy has convinced Cassie and Andie they have come from, having fled a war that was ravaging the world. The seemingly crazy story she has brainwashed her daughters into believing has held them in thrall for more than 10 years.

The story jumps from the present back to weeks earlier and then years earlier as we’re gradually filled in on how Joy and her girls have reached this momentous occasion.

We’re provided with hints and snippets of information designed to whet the appetite, so it’s possible to make educated guesses about the secrets that Joy has been keeping for nigh-on 21 years. 

The questions that spring to mind immediately centre largely around the reason why Joy has felt the need to convince the girls they’re from the future. They’ve clearly been sequestered from the rest of the world with home-schooling, no internet, mobile phones or television and the like. Plus, from early on there’s a name that pops up in Joy’s musings - Britney. 

This is a story that is allowed to be drawn out very gradually to start before taking off with gusto in the second half. Cassie and Andy display strength and resilience that was a pleasure to witness as they slowly understand just how deep the deception they’d believed in for years actually ran.

There are many poignant moments in the book and the majority of the characters are strong, resilient and supportive of one another. It’s this aspect of the book that shines. It’s just a matter of overlooking all of Joy’s faults and, it turns out, there are many, and understand that her motives are pure.

With a suitably eclectic cast of characters who manage to chime in with well timed voices of reason when required, this is a well-designed story that hides a tragic event. Yes, there are crimes committed, the cops are involved, and while I wouldn’t exactly term them twists, there’s definitely an unexpected turn or two that are quite satisfactory.