Love Water Memory
In the opening scene of Shortridge’s fifth novel, a Seattle woman is found standing knee-deep in the San Francisco Bay, dressed in a designer suit, her memory wiped clean. She soon learns that she is Lucie Walker—smart, organized, a bit of an ice queen, and engaged to marry Grady Goodall on her fortieth birthday. The new Lucie must rediscover the old one—not an easy task when she’s kept any details of her childhood from Grady, including how her parents died and why she no longer speaks to her aunt Helen. Shortridge skillfully crafts evocative settings, from the gardens of Seattle’s neighborhoods to the clean lines of Lucie’s furniture, and the complexities of a relationship mending itself amid so much mystery. Chapters alternate between Lucie, Grady, and Aunt Helen, who is the least frequent but strongest of the narrators, odd and off-putting but with a wonderful hint of humanity under her bitter, aging shell. The piecing together of the lives and secrets of Shortridge’s characters makes for a thoroughly satisfying read. --Annie Tully