The Blurb
FATE HINGES ON THE CHOICES WE MAKE
It’s 1982 and sixteen-year-old Catherine Day has been abandoned for good by her mother in their Glasgow home. Alone, in trouble, and desperate for money, Catherine is quickly ensnared by local criminals. In an attempt to escape a life of crime, she joins a local rock band.
She battles hard to succeed in the fickle music world, aided by a mysterious, and ever-present guardian angel – a man who has connections to her missing mother, her unknown father, and who, it transpires, is hiding a secret about her family and the Cold War that could change Catherine’s life forever.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine meets Daisy Jones and The Six in this heart-warming, heart-breaking coming-of-age story filled with humour and pathos.
Purchase Link
https://www.reddogpress.co.uk/product-page/any-day-now
My Review
Regular readers will know I love my crime fiction, and I really enjoyed Gordon's previous two books, written as Morgan Cry, Thirty-One Bones and Six Wounds. But occasionally it's nice to step away from crime fiction which is what I (and Gordon, of course) have done here, stepping into the world of another of Brown 's passions - music.
We're transported back to the 1980s where teenager Catherine has been abandoned by her unreliable mother. She comes home to an empty, dark house, no power, no food, no money and no idea where her mum has gone. Desperate for money, and falls in with the wrong types, but doesn't really have the heart for a life of crime. However it's not always easy to get away from it. She struggles for a while, finding solace in alcohol but finds that she can sing and joins a local band. After a personnel change, they have the possibility of making it big. As long as Catherine doesn't sabotage their chances before they begin.
Catherine is easy to relate to - we were all young once. And if I think really, really hard, I can almost remember being sixteen! The trials and tribulations at school (and Catherine has plenty of these! One particular confrontation is described brilliantly), the waiting for exam results, the Saturday/after school job. Happily though I had a stable home life and enough money to get by, which poor Catherine doesn't. And when her mum leaves her, all Catherine wants to know is where she is. An understandable need that grows over the years. I loved the description of the hair salon she works in, so easy to picture, and the pecking order of the punters there. Brilliant. The description of the dole office brought back a few memories and The conversation between Isobel and Billy in the queue cracked me up. I changed my opinion of them as the book went on, right enough.
Catherine is easy to relate to - we were all young once. And if I think really, really hard, I can almost remember being sixteen! The trials and tribulations at school (and Catherine has plenty of these! One particular confrontation is described brilliantly), the waiting for exam results, the Saturday/after school job. Happily though I had a stable home life and enough money to get by, which poor Catherine doesn't. And when her mum leaves her, all Catherine wants to know is where she is. An understandable need that grows over the years. I loved the description of the hair salon she works in, so easy to picture, and the pecking order of the punters there. Brilliant. The description of the dole office brought back a few memories and The conversation between Isobel and Billy in the queue cracked me up. I changed my opinion of them as the book went on, right enough.
There is a lot of waiting in the book and I love how Gordon describes all the waits. I think many of us can relate to The Sleep Wait: 'The wait that gets longer the less you want it to. The wait that provides all The time your head needs to think about all the things you don't want to think about.' He also sums up Glasgow in a sentence: 'Ask a question, get a tale.' Yup. Some beautiful descriptive writing such as when Catherine is having some negative thoughts '....unfurl in my head like cheap tablecloths.' Loved that.
It was brilliant to read about a band trying to make it big in that era, which was The time I was growing up. Love the wee peek into the music world. And how easy it is not to make it.
But this is a story about friends, strangers, strangers who become friends but ultimately about the decisions and choices we ourselves make. How easy it might be to change our lives, if only we could see it, if only we c an be brave, if only we can let go of the past, or whatever. And it's about having the right people around us, the ones who care, the ones who support us, the ones who lift us up, the ones who cheer for us. Any Day Now is a bittersweet coming of age story that is about all of these things but it's also a mystery with a guardian angel and a possible link to a Russian empress. There are laugh out loud moments, and moments of heartbreak on this journey of discovery. Really enjoyed it, great to read something a bit different.
The Author
Gordon Brown has eight crime and thriller books published to date, along with a novella and a number of short stories.
Gordon also helped found Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s International Crime Writing Festival (see www.bloodyscotland.com), is a DJ on local radio (www.pulseonair.co.uk) and runs a strategic planning consultancy. He lives in Scotland and is married with two children.
In a former life Gordon delivered pizzas in Toronto, sold non-alcoholic beer in the Middle East, launched a creativity training business, floated a high tech company on the London Stock Exchange, compered the main stage at a two-day music festival and was once booed by 49,000 people while on the pitch at a major football Cup Final.
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