The Long Long Afternoon is a splendid debut from Inca Vesper. Set in the blistering heat of Sunnylakes, California in the 1950s, we meet Joyce a moneyed housewife with two young children. She causally tells us that she has kissed her husband for the last time! We learn a little about her then move narrator to Ruby who is a cleaner for several of the homes in the Sunnylakes area. 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. Suddenly it seems all is not as it seems within the picture perfect neighbourhood. The setting is so well described and the characters are nicely fleshed out. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am amazed it is a debut! Well polished, a great story