While No One Was Watching

The US President, John F Kennedy, is assassinated as his motorcade hits town, watched by crowds of spectators and the world's media. Watching too from the grassy knoll nearby is a young mother who, in the confusion, lets go of her daughter's hand. When she turns around the little girl has vanished. Fifty years later, when everyone remembers what they were doing at that moment in history, she is still missing. Who will remember her? Local hack Gary Blanchet, inspired by the mother's story, joins forces with former police psychic Lydia Collins to seek answers. Risking ridicule for their controversial theories and with a classroom shooting close to home to deal with, they re-examine the evidence from that day, study footage and look at the official report for details of witnesses in the JFK case. But this time they're not looking for a man in a crowd with a gun; they are looking for little Eleanor Boone. Gone, while no one was watching? Maybe someone was.

About the Author :
Debz Hobbs-Wyatt was born in Essex and now lives and works as a full time writer from her home in the mountains of Snowdonia. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Bangor University and has had several short stories published. She won the 2013 Bath Short Story prize with 'Learning to Fly', has been nominated for the prestigious US Pushcart Prize 2013 and short listed for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2013. While No One Was Watching is her debut novel.

Review :
Debz Hobbs-Wyatt is a brave woman. Who takes a true story that’s been analysed, dissected and subject to the scrutiny of conspiracy theorists for fifty years and uses it as a hook on which to hang their début novel? It’s certainly not what you’d call the easy route to publishing, but it’s fair to say that Hobbs-Wyatt’s bravery has paid off. While No One Was Watching is an accomplished début that raises huge questions around secrecy, memory and the writing of history. On 22 November 1963, America lost its president in a shooting as his motorcade drove through Dallas; this much we know. What Hobbs-Wyatt brings to the table is the story of Edith and Eleanor Boone, a mother and daughter who are standing by the infamous grassy knoll as JFK comes to his untimely end. In the post-shooting panic and confusion, mother and daughter lose each other, and the young Eleanor is never seen again. Fifty years later, local journalist Gary Blanchet chances upon the story and takes it upon himself to uncover the truth as to what went on that day. Along the way we get an insight into Gary’s son, boss and ex-wife, and we’re introduced to Lydia Collins, a local psychic who becomes a driving force in the book. To give any more of a synopsis would be unfair; suffice it to say there’s enough in these pages to keep even the slowest reader speeding through. At times Hobbs-Wyatt’s characterisation waivers a little, with the occasional character feeling a little two-dimensional and clichéd. That said, in a novel containing fifty years’ worth of characters, it would take another couple of hundred pages to fill them all out. At just over 400 pages, While No One Was Watching is a well-paced novel that suits its length. This is a great book, and not just for its story. It’s a book about memories and people and secrets; a reminder that for every memory made, there are infinite others instantly forgotten. It raises questions about how collective memories can often overrule personal memories, and how the repeated telling of a story from one perspective can make other tellings obsolete. What it does so well is to open up the possibilities of history and make the reader question what they think they know. A few weeks ago a web-link was doing the rounds on social media. It contained a series of pictures that had been partly drawn by one family member, and then finished and coloured in by another. The neck lines on a line-drawn portrait suddenly became the outline of a mermaid’s tale, houses became clouds, and so on. The results were surreal, magical, and made you reassess what you saw in the ‘before and after’ pictures. As I finished While No One Was Watching, it struck me that what Hobbs-Wyatt has done is exactly the same as these pictures: she’s taken a story the world knows so well and turned it into something that makes you question it. That’s a huge achievement.