The Wrong Door by Bunty Avieson

Publisher's Synopsis

Pete's dead and Gwennie's life will never be the same. How could Pete, a young, fit man, leave her now? Their lives together were only just beginning. And pneumonia? It was insane, unthinkable, unbearable. Somehow she struggles through the funeral in a daze, and the mysterious mourner in the tight-fitting red dress barely registers in her consciousness.

It's only later, when spotting a discrepancy in Pete's tax records, that she begins to wonder. Who was that woman?

Clare smoothed the knitted wool dress over her hips. It hugged every curve and she had many, in all the right places.

The woman in red is Clare Dalton, and she has stumbled into the wrong funeral service. Her brief appearance and signature in the conolance book are all it takes to set in motion a trail of deception, mystery and buried secrets that connects these two strangers in ways that they never thought imaginable.

My Review 

Clare Dalton lives with her mother and sister, dominated by their violent tempers she is a quiet woman who always sought the company of her elderly next door neighbor, Mr Sanjay. Mr Sanjay had a calming influence over her, happy and able to brighten her mood no matter how distressed she is by the fights surrounding her. She is devastated when he dies of a massive stroke but resolves to attend his funeral not in the traditional dark, somber mourning clothes but in a bright red dress. She knows he would have approved at the unorthodoxy behind her choice.

Unknowingly, Clare mistakenly walks into the wrong funeral when she arrives late at the crematorium. It's only after she has created a stir while finding a seat in the crowded room that she realizes her mistake. She is not to know that this mistake is about to trigger a harrowing chain of events.

The funeral she accidentally attends is for Pete Darvill, a young man who has died unexpectedly from pneumonia. The appearance of the mysterious woman in red starts Pete's colleagues from work talking, guessing that she must be the secret lover of the dead man, a man who appeared to be such a devoted husband. Newly widowed Gwennie Darvill can't help but be a little suspicious as she tries to come to terms with her husband's sudden death although she doesn't truly believe he would have cheated on her.

When she stumbles across evidence that he had been travelling to the Blue Mountains every week without her knowledge it appears that her worst fears are confirmed. Suddenly she is consumed by a need to know her husband's secret life - and the woman in red must surely hold the key.

Meanwhile, while Gwennie is trying to uncover one secret past, Clare is proceeding to find out some disturbing anomalies in her own past. Curiously, there appears to be some link to the man whose funeral she happened to gatecrash recently.

As the past is slowly uncovered by Clare, there is a distinct building of tension. It is obvious that there are secrets waiting to be revealed that are going to be significant enough that they will deeply affect her life. Her mother and sister are withholding something from her.

This is not a pulse-racing thriller but is more of a methodical uncovering of information with layer upon layer of jolting surprises being revealed. Bunty Avieson does an excellent job of carefully releasing information as the pieces of the puzzle into the lives of Clare and Gwennie are put into place. As this information is released we go through a multitude of possible scenarios from which to choose, and the characters are taken through a harrowing range of emotions. From grief to rage before a flirt with insanity as the rage bubbles over into revenge and finally back to a semblance of understanding, both of the main characters souls are laid bare.

There is a heavy dependence on coincidence to bring the story together, particularly in the links between Clare and Gwennie and at times this becomes just a little too convenient to be believable. But what works particularly well is the story of the lives of all the women involved and the choices they made to cope with extremely difficult situations.

The main theme that is explored throughout the story, and it's repeated time and again, is the unforeseen results that can come from keeping secrets. From the harmless little secrets kept by Clare's next door neighbour, to the more meaningful secrets held by Clare's family and Gwennie's husband, they will all come back to affect the lives of everyone involved in one way or another.

Bunty Avieson has written a compelling mystery that takes us on an obsessive hunt for the truth with little regard to whether we really want to know the answer to all of the questions that are asked. Can we handle the results of walking through The Wrong Door or is it better to just let sleeping dogs lie?