Welcome back book clubbers, to another amazing (my mother’s word, not mine) book review!

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The Remarkable Truths of Alfie Bains could honestly not have come into my life at a better time. The weather: hellish. My immune system: compromised. My mental state: prone to dramatics – completely not like me at all. And what should have fallen into my lap but a cosy mystery with a complex family drama at its core and the evocative Tasmanian setting of a beautiful island surrounded by tempestuous waters and even more tempestuous secrets! I was reeled in like a fish.

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Adorable Alfie Bains, whose insatiable curiosity and scientific knowledge is as impressive as it is humbling, rocks up to the small, cloistered community of Beggar’s Rock with his mum Emilia in tow to completely disrupt the lives of its inhabitants (a similar tradition I have every Christmas).

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The scoop? Emilia has been estranged from her mother, Penny, and affluent in-laws for the last decade with no word regarding her whereabouts or Alfie’s existence. Adding to the mystery is no one seems to know why Emilia left her seemingly perfect husband and who Alfie’s biological father is. Unfortunately for her, Alfie secretly plans to investigate every person involved, like a junior Benoit Blanc.

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Much list-making and espionage (my favourite combo) ensues and, as past events gradually reveal themselves, the adults in Alfie’s life become ensnared in a dilemma of deciding what truths may be too harmful for even a child as intelligent as Alfie to understand.

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Told from multiple points of view with jumps between the past and present, Sarah Clutton creates a compelling mystery for both Alfie and the reader as pieces of what happened between Emilia and her family fall into place as well as the personal tragedies she tried to leave behind. The final chapters are brilliantly layered with suspense as the growing lies between the two families inevitably lead to an emotional implosion that puts the very person they’re trying to protect in danger.

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I very much hope to see a second book from this author as I was all too reluctant to leave Beggar’s Rock and the Bains family behind. The central characters each possess a certain warmth and charm in this heart-touching story that makes for excellent reading in these colder months.

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I hope The Remarkable Truths of Alfie Bains will do for your book club what it did for me; a great renewal of the spirits and delightful mental vacay.

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