By Your Side by Ruth Jones

I loved Linda's job - working for the council as a sort of special detective, helping to settle people's final affairs when they have died and seemingly have no family to help.  (Is this a real job, and can I do it?)  And I was fully committed to her discovering the truth about Levi, fairly screaming in my head 'but why was he living on his own?!' by the end.  The book is the story of Linda and of Levi, but of lots of other characters along the way too.  

Ruth Jones is very clever with characters - there's a large cast here, but I felt like I knew everyone as they came into the story, and I enjoyed the mixture of humour and tragedy...some of the book is really, really sad, but then in a moment she's lifting your spirits again.  I did find myself reading it, initially, with Nessa's voice narrating the whole thing in my head!  But soon the story, and the characters, took over.  You know from early on that Levi's story won't be a happy one, but that unravelling of why is really wonderfully, heart-breakingly done.  And the gentle reveal of Linda's own tragedy is handled with care.  I was fully immersed in these lives as I read, and I felt a bit bereft once it was all over.