Very interesting and intriguing from the start! Powerfully engaging from the very first page. The characters are instantly brought to life and from the onset you feel the emotional pain of Joyce with her thoughts of ‘hope in the morning, desperation in the afternoon’ and ‘mind crumbles to dust’ injects the reader with the impression of depression. Ruby is treated appallingly by some of her clients because she has the audacity to be black (don’t forget the year of the book) and she tolerates this as she needs the money to pursue her dreams. When she arrives to clean Joyce’s house and finds two young children alone and a kitchen coated in blood she raises the alarm and an investigation begins. This was a sort of gritty read, and yet I really enjoyed it - but I will admit, it made me sick at times, and feel horror at what the women went through. I also thought I knew exactly what was going to happen and who dunnit, but I couldn't have been far from the truth. This is an amazing debut novel by Inga Vesper and I can't wait to read more by her.