Book review: 'Elizabeth is Missing' by Emma Healey

This novel took me on an emotional roller-coaster! I think having worked with demented people in hospital in my Gap Year after school, I could see some of my former patients in Maud - sometimes things she says or does are funny for not being in context, whilst at other times the harsher side of dementia left me feeling sad and frustrated for her and her family, and yet fearful that maybe I will end up like Maud in years to come - I'm not known for having the best memory at the moment! The thing that hit home with me was Maud's persistent quest to find her old friend Elizabeth; several patients I have cared for were on similar searches for "missing" loved ones, even though these sought-for people had been dead many years. 

This is a murder-mystery with a difference, only Maud can piece together the evidence, if only she can remember to write things down, and who she is investigating. The narrative is split between Maud now and her reminiscing about her childhood - her confused mind often blending the two together, often in darkly comic ways.

The novel reminds you that confused older people aren't as 'loopy' as they may seem - buried within themselves are coherent and lucid memories that they find hard to apply to normal life due to failing short-term memory, but yet these memories are important to their sense of self. These individuals are to be respected - after all, they were young too once.

Highly recommend this book, I know it is going to remain in my mind for a long time......... I hope!