A tangled web of secrets

• Published date: 17 April 2024
• Publication title: Whanganui Midweek

by Jenny Lynch, Mary Egan Publishing, $38

It takes a brave octogenarian to write a first novel. At 85 Jenny Lynch has had the courage to. But then she has the advantage over most would-be authors of her vintage. More than three decades in journalism culminated in her 18-year tenure in the New Zealand Women’s Weekly’s editor’s chair.

Non-fiction has previously been Lynch’s forte. Her debut novel moves her into uncharted territory. She planned that it would be a short story. “But then,” she says “the characters and plot took over.”

Central character Helena was 3 when her mum Eve apparently drowned in the Manukau Harbour. It was a tragedy neither her grandmother nor her father will speak of. The only insight Helena has is a photograph of a woman to whom she bears a striking...