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Linda Davidson, a widow, spends her days visiting her childhood friend, Carol, who resides at the Legacy Place nursing home with dementia. One afternoon, a tiny elderly woman gets her attention. She introduces herself as Jenny Cooper. Jenny has a secret. Jenny kills people. Or does she?

Setting the Scene

76-year-old Linda Davidson is feeling her age. Her husband recently passed away, leaving her heartbroken and lonely. So, she finds herself watching a lot of Dateline and organizing her closet. Her youngest daughter, Kleo, and Kleo’s husband, Mick, move in with her, and the two argue over everything. Kleo dismisses it as stress from Mick’s new business, but Linda isn’t so sure, and she’s worried.

Linda also spends her time visiting her friend Carol, who lives at Legacy Place Nursing Home. They’ve been best friends since childhood, but Carol has dementia and no longer remembers her. During one visit, Linda hears a “psst…” and sees Jenny Cooper, a resident in her 90s. Jenny tells her that she has a secret: she kills people! Of course, Linda dismisses this. For goodness’ sake, Jenny has dementia! But with Carol’s friendship fading, Linda’s husband’s recent death, and the turmoil at home, her loneliness turns into curiosity, and she begins to spend more time with Jenny.

What’s Up With Jenny?

One afternoon, Jenny disappears from the home. After an exhaustive search, they find her. She says she was at the CVS, but no one believes her. And when an elderly resident dies, Linda starts wondering if Jenny might have been involved. But no, that’s silly, she’s just watching too much Dateline!

On another visit, Jenny tells Linda about killing her father because he was abusive, and he killed her mother. Jenny talks about being young, attending school to become a pharmacist and getting married. Her husband also turned out to be abusive, so she killed him, too. There were others, but she isn’t sure how many. It varies. Jenny then tells Linda about her “special recipe” made with common OTC medications that came in handy through the years.

When Jenny has lucid moments, Linda starts to believe some of what she is saying. Okay, so she didn’t kill JFK like she says she did, but still, some of her stories might be true. Then another resident dies—a not-so-nice resident. Meanwhile, Carol’s husband, Lorne, takes a “friendly” interest in Linda and asks about having lunch or dinner sometime. Jenny has fun with that one.

After a disastrous getaway with Lorne, which she knew was kind of “icky” to begin with, Linda comes home to find the relationship between her daughter and son-in-law has gotten worse. He isn’t working, he has been out drinking and he’s having affairs. Kleo and Mick’s arguments escalate to the point of physical abuse. During all of this, Jenny becomes seriously ill, but before she passes, she makes sure to leave something special for Linda.

Final Thoughts

I loved this book! This was my first time reading this author, and I could not put this down. Joy Fielding wrote the character Linda with a lot of depth. Between the loss of her husband and the loss of her friendship with Carol, she wasn’t quite sure where her place in life was.

But when she found Jenny (or, you could say, when Jenny found her), things changed. It sure beat Dateline! Linda came to care a great deal for Jenny and vice versa. Jenny’s character was harder to grasp, but I think that was done purposely to keep you guessing. And yet I found her just as interesting as Linda. Jenny was a survivor for sure. But did she actually kill people? I’ll let you decide for yourself, though I think JFK is a definite no (maybe?).