Lesley Crewe’s Nosy Parker is a very interesting book. I spent 200 pages trying to figure out what in the world the whole story was supposed to be about. The book was written in a way that I could switch off my brain and read it, in a good way. I liked the style of writing where it was really easy to follow along, but also keep me entertained. However, I found that there was really no plot to the story, Audrey Parker is a little girl growing up on this little street that she loves, she’s trying to be a spy, and a writer, while also trying to find anything she can on her mother who’s death is a mystery to her. There’s no pictures of her mother, no traces of her in their house, and her dad never talks about her. With Audrey’s spying and detective work, she’s determined to figure out everything about her mother. I thought that was cute, but I think my problem was that I was expecting a murder mystery for some reason, or for it to be a little more like a Nancy Drew Mystery at least.

The book was really just about Audrey getting herself into a whole lot of shenanigans, girl guides, high school crushes, broken friendships, school plays, babysitting, visiting neighbors, etc. Finding out about her mother comes in afterwards, and throughout the story she likes to make observations about how people with mothers live. I liked Audrey, but for a book titled Nosy Parker Audrey isn’t overly nosy which I liked. She’s nosy, but she only does it for the sake of gaining information, not to meddle with other people’s business.

Overall, I almost gave the book three stars. Mainly because I felt that the book was nothing special. There were also some unexpected parts. I wouldn’t quite say in was “unnecessary” to have certain parts in it, because she’s a young and curious girl learning about the world and I get that. The book is a fun read and I had a decent enough time reading it. But what really gave this book an extra star was around the ending where Audrey and her dad decided to sell everything and travel the world and go on all sort of adventures in different countries. I thought that was amazing, and it’s exactly what I did, and what I’ve been doing my whole life.

“So being in school is important and we need to consider it,
but I also think that seeing the world and different cultures is advantageous to a young mind” ~Jack Parker (Audrey’s dad)

“This is not meant as a tactic to blackmail you. I’ve been given a
second chance here. Our reality is that I won’t be around when you’re
old and grey, so it might be to our advantage to make a lifetime of
memories now, while we still can.” ~Jack Parker

So yes, I thought those were some pretty valid reasons to travel the world. And they were also my reasons. So yeah, that’s my book review for Nosy Parker by Lesley Crewe! I hope you check it out on the Nimbus catalogue!

Here’s the official synopsis from Nimbus:

Globe & Mail bestselling Lesley Crewe’s new novel brings readers to 1960s Montreal & features a nosy would-be child detective searching for the truth about her mother.

It’s 1967 in Montreal, the Expo is in full swing, and Audrey Parker has just moved with her dad to Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a whole new neighbourhood full of different kinds of people to spy on. Audrey is a lot of things: articulate, disarming, forthright. And, as her father reminds her often, indecently nosy.

Audrey scribbles every observation down in her notebooks — from which foods her new teacher eats for lunch, to how blue the water is in Greece, to what time the one-legged man across the street gets home. She is certain she will soon root out a murderer or uncover a mystery. But there’s only one mystery that really matters to her: her mother. Who was she? How did she die? Why won’t her father ever talk about her?

Over a year of Audrey’s life, we bike with her through the streets of NDG, encountering stray animals, free-range kids, and adults both viciously cruel and wonderful. And we walk with Audrey across the threshold from childhood to adolescence, where she will discover the truth about her mother.

Balancing humour and sadness as expertly as ever, author Lesley Crewe — who has so often captured Cape Breton perfectly on the page — turns her incisive observations for the first time to the NDG of the 1960s, where she grew up.

This book was released in late June, but I read a digital Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) earlier this year. This novel is set in Montreal, Canada, in 1967, where the tween protagonist, Audrey Parker has recently moved with her dad to Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a neighbourhood full of different people for her to observe. Audrey is very inquisitive, but the only mystery that really matters to her is her mother who passed away years ago. The story takes the readers along as Audrey navigates this coming-of-age journey.

I expected this book to be a fast-paced mystery. However, it started off pretty slow, which was surprising but not disappointing. Audrey is not a character you immediately fall in love with. I found her quite rash, quick to judge, and naive. When I first started this book, I thought it was a little below my age range. I also felt like she was portrayed as younger than her age and immature. Regardless, Audrey’s character development was noticeable, especially in the clever and heartbreaking epilogue. I found the overall morals of this book spectacular, and I loved the positive messages in the book, although sometimes in disguise. However, the book dealt with various serious issues, such as bullying, death, sexual assault etc in a narrative and, in my opinion, unnecessarily explicit manner.

I didn’t find this book to be exactly a mystery novel. I loved how it almost felt like an autobiography, although it was fictional. The reader comes along with Audrey as she goes about her daily life, with insight into her thought process. The book explores different ways of grieving and dealing with major happenings. The many anecdotes and side characters significantly added to the plot, although I found some of the minor characters' stories abruptly ended.

Lesley Crewe is a talented author that crafted a fitting title. She brilliantly balances grief and humour. I recommend this book to readers looking for an amusing, unique, and heart-warming read.

I rate this book 4/5 stars