I can’t decide if I’m very late to the hardback party for The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe M.B.E by Claire Parkin, or very early to the paperback party, but either way, I’m delighted to share my review today.

The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe M.B.E was released in hardback by Pan Macmillan on 24th March 2024 and will be out in paperback on 16th January 2025. See the publisher details here.

The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe M.B.E

Ruth and Muriel are best friends. And often, worst enemies.

Inseparable since they were little, Ruth and Muriel have shared everything.

Now, fate has left them living together in a North London home, with Ruth caring for Muriel in her deteriorating health, playing Scrabble, arguing and making up, passing the days in monotony.

Until one afternoon, when Muriel makes an unexpected and sinister announcement: ‘In exactly seventy-two hours, I am going to die’.

The end might be in sight for Muriel, but that’s just the beginning of this story about two old friends who have seventy-six years of history – and more than one shocking secret – between them . . .

My Review of The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe M.B.E

Ruth Donne has cared for her close friend Muriel Hinchcliffe for years.

What a deliciously toxic and entertaining read. I loved The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe M.B.E because Claire Parkin gets right under the skin of who we are as humans and illustrates just how close we are to savagery and maliciousness even when we love someone and do our best by them. It’s a fabulous portrait of two friends and rivals who cannot be separated – even to the extent of marrying the same man!

The story is filled with intrigue, and twists and turns, so that it’s impossible to decide whether Ruth (Roo) and Muriel (Moo) adore or despise one another. Having been linked since their mothers gave birth to them minutes apart, they are defined by one another, their relationship and, crucially, the themes of motherhood, love (or lack of it) and control. Physically opposites, with Moo an It girl model and Roo a dumpy hobbit-like woman, they are almost two sides of the same person. Neither is averse to devious and controlling behaviour. Neither can forgive the other for the things they have done to one another, and neither can live without the other, so that when Moo announces her imminent demise, Roo’s life spins into freefall. The depth of emotion linking the two women is brilliantly depicted.

As well as this wonderful relationship, there’s mystery in The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe M.B.E – but I can’t say anything further without spoiling the read. There’s criminal behaviour. There’s threat. There’s a smashing depiction of a small local community. Most fabulously, however, is the exploration of how one event leads inexorably to another beyond the intentions of the perpetrator. Through Roo’s first person narrative the layers of their lives are gradually revealed so that the reader becomes implicated in the story and vacillates between wide eyed shock and absolute admiration for the devious, manipulative and often unacceptable behaviour of the two women. It’s impossible to decide which of the two is the one to champion as they are equally well portrayed and equally culpable and forgivable!

I’m aware that this is one of my vague reviews that says very little, but it’s so hard not to give too much away. I thought The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe M.B.E was a brilliant book. I loved the intensity, the humour and the humanity and thoroughly recommend it.

About Claire Parkin

Claire Parkin was born in 1969 and brought up in a village just outside Cardiff. She graduated from King’s College London with an MA in 19th Century English and American Literature, before working as a journalist on women’s magazines – turning her hand to pretty much anything, from interviewing boxing champs and war correspondents, to learning how to pole dance and the correct way to iron a shirt. She turned to fiction after the birth of her son and daughter, and three of her short stories have been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe is her first novel.

Claire lives in north London with her husband and children.

You can find Claire on Instagram.