The Excitements: A Novel by Cj Wray
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The Excitements: A Novel

by

Cj Wray

(Author)

4.4

-

1,134 ratings


"Irresistible...Filled with surprise, poignancy, and excitement, this is a surefire winner." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A brilliant and witty drama about two brave female World War II veterans who survived the unthinkable without ever losing their killer instinct…or their joie de vivre.

Meet the Williamson sisters, Britain’s most treasured World War II veterans. Now in their late nineties, Josephine and Penny are in huge demand, popping up at commemorative events and history festivals all over the country. Despite their age, they’re still in great form—perfectly put together, sprightly and sparky, and always in search of their next “excitement.”

This time it’s a trip to Paris to receive the Légion d’honneur for their part in the liberation of France. And as always, they will be accompanied by their devoted great-nephew, Archie.

Keen historian Archie has always been given to understand that his great aunts had relatively minor roles in the Women’s Royal Navy and the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, but that’s only half the story. Both sisters are hiding far more than the usual “official secrets”. There’s a reason sweet Auntie Penny can dispatch a would-be mugger with an umbrella.

This trip to Paris is not what it seems either. Scandal and crime have always quietly trailed the Williamson sisters, even in the decades after the war. Now armed with new information about an old adversary, these much decorated (but admittedly ancient) veterans variously intend to settle scores, avenge lost friends, and pull off one last, daring heist before the curtain finally comes down on their illustrious careers.

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ISBN-10

0063337487

ISBN-13

978-0063337480

Print length

304 pages

Language

English

Publisher

William Morrow Paperbacks

Publication date

January 29, 2024

Dimensions

5.31 x 0.94 x 8 inches

Item weight

8 ounces


Product details

ASIN :

B0C43H2R4X

File size :

2818 KB

Text-to-speech :

Enabled

Screen reader :

Supported

Enhanced typesetting :

Enabled

X-Ray :

Not Enabled

Word wise :

Enabled


Editorial Reviews

"A richly-detailed caper that effortlessly blends historical fiction, mystery and romance. Readers will be particularly charmed by the high jinks of the senior sisters, whose joie de vivre makes this book memorable." — Washington Post Book World

"Irresistible...Filled with surprise, poignancy, and excitement, this is a surefire winner." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Utterly charming and engrossing." — Jenny Colgan, New York Times bestselling novelist

"An absolute treat of a novel—a glorious, rip-roaring adventure, so funny and charming, yet laced with unexpected moments of real tenderness and reflection. Penny and Josephine are heroines in every sense of the word, being both ordinary and extraordinary, and their personalities leap off the page so energetically that I missed them the moment I finished the final line." — Lucy Dillon, Sunday Times bestseller of Unexpected Lessons in Love

"The Excitements is a rip-roaring adventure that is both tremendously intriguing and wonderfully engaging. In Penny and Josephine, CJ Wray has created two marvelously endearing and daring National Treasures in waiting. Not all heroes wear capes, some wear M&S cardigans! A triumph!" — Mike Gayle, author of All the Lonely People

“Funny, thrilling and brilliantly researched. From the SOE to dodgy knees, its heartwarming description of the adventures of the redoubtable Penny and Josephine, past and present, made me want them, absolutely, as great aunts of my own.” — SJ Bennett, bestselling author of The Windsor Knot

“A joy from beginning to end. I loved the jovial adventures of two fearless female nonagenarian war veterans set alongside their intriguing and often thrilling wartime experiences. It’s utterly wonderful.” — Annie Lyons, author of The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett

“I’m a huge fan of Richard Osman’s books, but after reading this all I can say is, ‘Move over Richard Osman, The Excitements are in town!’ It’s just so good—funny, heartwarming, wise and just so incredibly well-researched.” — Alexandra Potter, author of Don’t You Forget About Me

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Sample

One

London, Spring 2022

John Betjeman was right. Nothing bad could ever happen at Peter Jones. Thus thought Archie Williamson as he sipped his cappuccino and looked out over London’s rooftops from the Sloane Square department store’s sixth floor café. The café was Archie’s happy place. Even on a grey day the atmosphere was sunny as people took turns at the window tables, understanding that one did not linger for hours over a single latte in front of this fabulous view. Archie nodded with satisfaction as a young woman with a laptop ceded her place to a frazzled mother with two small children, saving him from having to do the same.

With his own lunch companions still en route, Archie shook out the copy of the previous evening’s Standard left behind by his table’s last occupant and turned to the puzzle pages. Codeword was his favourite. He was getting faster each time, though it would be a while before he was able to crack the puzzle as quickly as his great-aunt Penny could.

As he pondered whether the number twenty-four represented an “a” or an “o,” Archie’s phone buzzed with a message. It was Arlene, Penny’s housekeeper, letting him know that she’d put Penny and her older sister Josephine into a taxi which should reach Sloane Square at any moment. Archie thanked Arlene for letting him know. She really was a treasure. But after forty minutes more there was still no sign of Archie’s beloved great-aunts. Then, just as he was about to call Arlene and ask her to check the taxi’s progress on her app, a managerial-type with a Peter Jones partner’s badge came flying up the escalator, calling out as she went, “Mr. Archie Williamson? Is there a Mr. Archie Williamson in the café?”

“Right here,” said Archie, standing up and giving her a wave. Two customers seated on the first inner row of tables stood up at the same time, ready to take Archie’s place by the window the very second it was vacated. They eyed each other like Olympic athletes at the start of the hundred metres and would move just as quickly the moment Archie stepped out of the way.

“Thank goodness,” said the woman, whose name, according to her badge, was Erica. “It’s your great-aunts. The Misses Williamson? I need you to come with me.”

Archie was immediately worried. “Are they OK? Are they hurt?”

There had been an incident the previous month when Josephine slipped on a discarded burger outside McDonald’s on the King’s Road and took Penny down with her as she fell. They’d both had to spend the night in the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital with suspected concussion.

“No, no,” said Erica. “They’re both fine. At least physically they are.” She dropped her voice. “It’s something else. Something . . . Mr. Williamson, I think it might be easier to discuss this somewhere private. Would you mind?”

Archie followed Erica back down the escalator. When they reached the ground floor, Erica led Archie through the shelves of neatly-stacked towels and bed linens to a door he hadn’t previously noticed. She pushed the door open so that Archie could go ahead of her.

“Your great-aunts are in here,” she said.

Archie found it difficult, letting Erica hold the door for him when manners dictated it should have been the other way round, but he nodded and stepped inside all the same. He still didn’t know what to expect.

In a plain room decorated with tasteful pastel prints (available for sale on floor four), Archie’s great-aunts sat side by side on two chairs opposite a very tidy desk. Though it was a balmy spring day outside, they were both well-muffled in coats and scarves. Josephine was wearing a blue fisherman’s cap; Penny, her favourite mohair beret. Archie was always surprised by how small his aunts looked when he saw them out of the context of their South Kensington home but this time they looked tinier than ever. Perhaps it was the contrast with the two enormous men flanking them like sentries. Plain-clothed security officers, Archie realised with growing concern.

“Oh, Archie. Thank goodness you’re here,” said Josephine. “There’s been a terrible misunderstanding.”

“What’s going on?” he asked.

Auntie Penny looked down at her size three-and-a-half feet in their neat Velcro-fastened shoes. When she looked up again, her face wore the expression Archie recognised from every photograph of his younger great-aunt taken between 1924 and the beginning of World War Two. She’d been up to something. What on earth was this “misunderstanding” about?

“Archie, dearest, I’m so sorry to embarrass you like this,” Penny began. “I only picked it up to have a look but I must have let myself get distracted and before I knew what I was doing I had put it in my handbag and closed the zip quite without thinking.”

The “it” in question was a small Swarovski-style crystal elephant, now standing on its hind legs in the middle of Erica’s desk.

“Are we calling the police?” asked one of the security guards.

Lovely Erica chewed her lip. She looked from the guard to the sisters to Archie and then back to the guard again. Her discomfort was palpable.

“I don’t think calling the police will be necessary,” Archie interjected quickly. “As you can see, my auntie Penny is . . .”

How to not say “ancient” in front of her?

“Well, I’m sure she won’t mind me saying that there are occasions when she becomes a little forgetful, but she does not have a dishonest bone in her body and she would never have sought to deprive Peter Jones of its property by stealth. She’s as honest as the day is long. It’s just . . . it’s just, she has . . . you know . . . she’s got . . .”

No. He couldn’t say the “d” word either, even if it might help keep Penny out of jail.

“It’s just that she’s recently turned ninety-seven.”

Penny nodded wretchedly, suddenly looking every one of her years.

“I was in The War,” she said.

“So was I,” said Josephine.

“In fact,” Archie continued. “I came here today to meet my great-aunts in the café to discuss their taking part in the VE Day celebrations at the Royal Albert Hall. VE Day? To mark the anniversary of the end of World War Two?”

“In Europe,” Penny qualified. “The War didn’t end in the Far East until much later the same year.”

“That’s absolutely right, Auntie Penny.” Archie turned back to Erica. “They’re going to be meeting Prince Charles in their capacity as representatives of the women’s services.”

The security officer who wanted to call the police seemed unmoved but Archie could see that the younger man and Erica at least were impressed to hear they were in the presence of real live World War Two veterans.

“I was in the Wrens,” said Josephine.

“Women’s Royal Naval Service,” said Archie.

“And I was a FANY,” said Penny.

“First Aid Nursing Yeomanry,” Archie quickly explained.

“Thank you for your service,” said the younger guard.

It was a platitude that Archie knew both his aunts hated but that day they had the grace (or the sense) to simply thank the young man for his kindness.

“I’d be very happy to pay for the elephant,” said Archie, in an attempt to bring the situation to a conclusion. “Perhaps then we can put all this behind us and let you get on with your day.”

“Store policy . . .” the older officer began.

“Is that every incident like this has to be processed in the official way,” Erica jumped in. “I know, John, I know. But perhaps in this case since, technically, Mizz Williamson hadn’t exited the store . . .”

Archie smiled gratefully and handed over a credit card. “For the elephant.”

“You don’t have to,” said Erica.

“But I’d like to,” said Archie.

He reasoned that Penny must have wanted it.

“Well, if you really want to. We’ll have to take it to one of the tills.”

“Are we not calling the police then?” asked John.

“We’re not calling the police,” Erica confirmed. “Not today. Ladies?” She opened the door to let Penny and Josephine back out onto the shop floor.

Archie parked Penny and Josephine in the cushion aisle while he paid for the hideous crystal knick-knack. It was astonishingly expensive. Excruciatingly so for something so very, very ugly. Who on earth bought these things out of choice? Who would ever bother to steal one?

“I think we’ll have lunch at Colbert today,” Archie told the sisters when he rejoined them. He felt the need to be outside and well away from the scene of the crime. The two security officers had headed in the direction of the main doors which opened straight onto Sloane Square, so Archie ushered his great-aunts out via the scented candle department onto Symons Street instead, making it clear by his body language that this was no time to stop and sniff the Cire Trudon Abd El Kader candle that reminded Penny of her time in Algiers.

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About the authors

Cj Wray

Cj Wray

CJ Wray is the pseudonym of a Sunday Times bestselling author with more than forty books to her name. Raised in the west of England, she studied psychology before embarking on a portfolio career that has seen her selling kitchens, editing erotica, interviewing an armed robber and impersonating a princess.


Reviews

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

1,134 global ratings

becky lou evans

becky lou evans

5

Great fun!

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2024

Verified Purchase

I have been reading a lot of murder mysteries lately and this book was a great departure. So many excitements for women in their late 90's! Gives one hope that old age doesn't have to be boring. Highly recommend.

Amy from GA

Amy from GA

5

It was exciting to read!

Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2024

Verified Purchase

Beautifully written, poignant, funny, with many excitements! Penny and Josephine, both in their late 90s, have lived exciting lives. Many of the details of their lives, especially what they did in WWII, have been kept hidden from each other and their beloved great nephew Archie. On a trip to France, all secrets are revealed while our 3 main characters attend a medal awards ceremony and a rare jewelry auction that is interrupted by robbers.

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4 people found this helpful

Elizabeth A. Shaw

Elizabeth A. Shaw

5

What old ladies???

Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2024

Verified Purchase

A wonderful story filled with enchanting characters, and some not so enchanting. Time jumping , allowing the sister's stories to fully emerge, made their story more compelling. It was a story filled with joy, sadness and "excitement", all of which was not diluted by the ending. After all, Archie would not inherit their house after the sisters were gone, but he still had family to embrace. Charming!

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2 people found this helpful

Carolyn P.

Carolyn P.

5

lovely read

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2024

Verified Purchase

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The time shifts were very well done. The plot twists/character reveals towards the end made the story even more enjoyable.

Such a great romp! Entertaining from beginning to end. Wonderful characters and a fabulous glimpse at the importance of women in WW2

Such a great romp! Entertaining from beginning to end. Wonderful characters and a fabulous glimpse at the importance of women in WW2

5

A truly great read

Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2024

Verified Purchase

Such a fun romp! Perfect weekend read… fabulous characters and an interesting reveal of the little known role of women in WW2. You will wish that Penny & Josephine were your great aunts!

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