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    Every Seven Years
    Every Seven Years
    Every Seven Years
    Ebook48 pages33 minutes

    Every Seven Years

    By Denise Mina

    3.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Elsa finds a book with strange powers and must face her tortured past.

    It’s been seven years since Else visited her tiny hometown on an isolated island off the coast of Scotland. After years of suffering bullying at the hands of the few other residents, she left to make a new life. But now that her mother has passed, Else has returned. And when her old tormentor Karen Little hands her the very book that sent her running all those years ago, the cruelties of her past have Else seeing red.

    The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMysteriousPress.com Open Road
    Release dateDec 15, 2015
    ISBN9781504025966
    Every Seven Years
    Author

    Denise Mina

    Denise Mina was born in East Kilbride in 1966. Her first book, Garnethill, won the CWA Dagger for Best First Crime Novel. She has won the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year twice, and the MacIlvanney Prize twice. She is a presenter of TV and radio programmes, and appears regularly in the media. 

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    Reviews for Every Seven Years

    3.5/5

    16 ratings4 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Upon her mother's death, minor actress Else returns to her childhood home on a Scottish isle where she comes face to face with her past. The book involved reminds Else of the torture she endured at the hands of bullies. The writing style did not work for me and made it difficult for me to care what happened to Else or anybody else.
    • 3/5
      It took me a little while to get into this one - the narrative drops you right into the perspective of a woman who's forced to give a public appearance while she's still in shock after learning of her mother's death - and the feeling is a bit offputting.

      However, soon enough, the story hits its stride. Else, our protagonist has returned to her childhood home, a Scottish island, after attaining minor fame as an actress on the 'mainland.' However, her childhood memories are less than happy - she and her mother were treated as pariahs, and it was only out of stubborness that her mother refused to move house.

      Now, after her mother's death, Else wonders what really happened all those years ago - as she meets up with both the bully of her school days, and her long-ago first crush.

      A short mystery with a few nice twists and turns.

      Many thanks to NetGalley and Mysterious Press for the opportunity to read. As always, my opinions are solely my own.
    • 4/5
      Denise Mina's "Every Seven Years" is a worthy addition to the Bibliomysteries series of short stories about deadly books, all written by top authors for the Mysterious Press. In it the main character reminds us that "the human body renews itself every seven years." Lo and behold, it's been seven years since Else last visited the remote island off the coast of Scotland on which she spent such a miserable childhood. Has she renewed herself?Now an actress in London, Else is making an appearance on the island when her old nemesis hands her a library book that triggers terrible memories. It's the very same book that made her leave all those years ago, and the only reason why Karen Little gave it to her was to remind her of all the bullying Else had to endure. Or is it?Mina has written a very quiet, very menacing story in which the reader will definitely side with Else after all the misery she's gone through. Else has a memorable voice, fierce emotions, and the determination never to be bullied again. But the problem with strong emotions and indelible memories is that they can be misleading. Nothing is quite what it seems in "Every Seven Years," and that makes for one very enjoyable ride.
    • 4/5
      This short story is one of a series by crime writers, published as standalone stories and in several slightly different anthologies in the US and UK, as Death Sentences: Short Stories to Die For, by a publishing partnership.Now a successful actor in London, Else has returned to her old school on a remote Scottish island to give a speech. Else’s mother has just died and Else is angry and hurt by her past on the island, in which she and her mum were shunned as outsiders and she was bullied at school. Else tells her story as a monologue and reveals a plan to seek revenge, and I thought this would be a good listen (I don’t know if it’s available in audio). It’s a good read and obviously I expected there to be a crime/murder theme, but it’ s hard to show/grasp what motivates the characters in such a short piece.

    Book preview

    Every Seven Years - Denise Mina

    I AM STANDING on a rostrum in my old school library. An audience of thirty or so people is applauding, I am smiling and mouthing thank you and I know that they all hate me.

    The audience looks like people I used to know seven years ago, but less hopeful and fatter. Actually, they’re not fat, they’re normal sized, but I’m an actor. We have to stay thin because our bodies are a tool of our trade. A lot of us have eating disorders and that creates an atmosphere of anxiety around food. The applauding audience isn’t fat; I’m just London-actress thin, which is almost-too-thin.

    I look down. The rostrum is composed of big ply board cubes that fit together. We are standing on five but the corner one is missing; maybe they ran out of cubes, or one is broken. It’s like standing on a slide puzzle, where one tile is missing and the picture is jumbled. This seems hugely significant to me while it is happening: we’re in a puzzle and a big bit is missing. The whole afternoon feels like a hyper-real dream sequence so far, interspersed with flashes of terror and disbelief. My mum died this morning.

    There is no chair on the rostrum, no microphone, no lectern to hide behind. I stand, exposed, on a broken box and justify my career as a minor actress to an audience who doesn’t like me.

    There are about thirty people in the audience. Not exactly the Albert Hall, but they are appreciative of my time because my mum is ill. She’s in the local hospital and that’s why I’m back. It has been mentioned several times, in the introductions and during the questioning. So sorry about your mum.

    Maybe pity is fueling the applause. Maybe time is moving strangely because I’m in shock. I smile and mouth thank you at them for a third time. I want to cry but I’m professional and I swallow the wave of sadness that engulfs me. Never bitter. My mother’s words: never bitter, Else. That’s not for us. My mum said life is a race against bitterness. She said if you die before bitterness eats you, then you’ve won. She won.

    A fat child is climbing up the side of the rostrum towards me. He can’t be more than four or five. He’s so round and wobbly he has to swing his legs sideways to walk properly. He comes up to me and— tada!—he shoves a bunch of supermarket flowers at my belly without looking at me. The price is still on them. He must be someone’s kid. He’s not the kid you would choose to give a visiting celebrity flowers, even a crap celebrity. He turns away and sort of rolls off the side of the platform and runs back to his mum.

    He pumps his chunky little arms at his side, leg-swing-run, leg-swing-run, running all the way down the aisle to a big lady sitting at the back. Her face brims with pride. He looks lovely to her. She’s just feeding him what

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