This seemed to start off a bit slow just because it seemed to take a while to establish the characters and cover a lot of the governmental stuff. But either it picked up or I got more into it because the later chapters seemed to go by much more smoothly. The mystery is good and interesting overall although I think the biggest selling point of the book is that it was written by a former MP back in the early 1930s and she peppers the book with observations on the government and how women MPs were treated. I liked how the relationship between the elected people and the civil servants was portrayed as well.

Previous updates:

65 %

47 %

Lady Bell-Clinton pulled a face at Robert as he opened the door for the retreat of the ladies. It was tiresome to have to go and be a lady in the drawing-room when she wanted to be an M.P. and remain for the talk. The House of Commons unfits a woman M.P. for the smaller observances of the social routine that is prescribed for the Lady Bell-Clintons.

I vote all the women MPs should have a houseparty with only one male MP and so he's left on his own when the ladies leave and talk business.

The attitude of Robert West to the modern young woman was typical of that of a very young man. He preferred the intelligent woman. He liked to be seen about with one who was making a name for herself. But while he was interested in her he expected her to put her own affairs into the background, and devote herself to his. When she was no longer needed she might be permitted to pick up her own threads again, but she must not trouble him. This he called allowing a woman to live her own life.

Charlotte’s brother’s latest girlfriend Ruth is greeted with some justified suspicion in Darcey Bell’s Something She’s Not Telling Us.  His history of dating highly unstable women, occasional lapses in sobriety and a demonstrated lack of judgement cause his family to scrutinize his latest conquest.  On the other hand, Charlotte is revealed to be an overprotective, paranoid and obsessive person who has some serious problems with objectivity and a tenuous grip on reality herself. Such a character makes for an interestingly biased perspective. This type of “protagonist” is an unreliable narrator akin to those Bell has employed in the past—one that causes the reader to immediately be on guard when evaluating her version of events. Other chapters feature the point of view of Ruth, another source that is transparently skewed. Fans of A Simple Favor and the film upon which it is based may be somewhat disappointed by Bell’s latest effort, for although the novel contains some innovative twists and is well written, it suffers from an overabundance of side plots that distract and stretch credulity. The psychology of the villain is incompletely developed, and her motives are insufficiently substantial to warrant the extremity of her actions. The reader is also left guessing as to why Ruth elects to victimize Rocco’s family, and Charlotte and her family are so unlikeable that not a lot of pity is generated for them. The big revelations are a bit predictable and banal, and the ending falls short of climactic. In sum, Something She’s Not Telling Us is diverting enough as a standard suspense story, but unfortunately is not one that is particularly remarkable or memorable.

Thanks to the author, Harper Collins and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Once the book really gets going, and once I got used to Bell's references and attitudes, there are some really fascinating descriptions of daily life in the area she's travelling in Syria. 

Not just daily life, politics and customs, too feature and would have been even more fascinating for her readers back in 1907. 

I'm still struggling a bit how all of the descriptions fit together and what the purpose and itinerary of Bell's trip were.