Help me identify this book!

[FenellaMaxwell]

I thought it was ‘Summer Sisters’ but Judy Bloom but I’ve just reread it and it’s not. All I can remember is that there’s a relationship in it that’s formed in childhood and ends in adulthood when the woman kills herself, and it’s described as her jumping off something (a cliff or a building I think?) in a confident swan dive, just like she used to do in the hay loft or lake or something when they were children. I couldn’t even tell you if it’s a friend relationship or a romantic one or siblings.

omg that sounds so familiar.... and so like a Judy Blume plot.....how frustrating

Is it The Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood? Sounds vaguely familiar, but it’s about 15 years since I read it.

The Ice Cream Girls - Dorothy Koomson?

The swan dive sounds familiar, I will have a think.

It’s definitely not Ice Cream Girls - I’ve not read that. I suppose it could be ‘Divine Secrets’ but I’m not sure that it is. It’s really annoying me!

I don’t think it’s from Sisterhood, doesn’t sound familiar to me.

That sounds like 'Last Rung of the Ladder', a Stephen King short story

Last Rung Of The Ladder has a bit with a newspaper article saying "call girl swan dives to her death". The hay loft is a running theme through it (he saves her life in the hay loft as kids, she wishes he hadn't before she dies).

Just checked- it’s not ‘Sisterhood’. I don’t think it’s the Stephen King as it wasn’t a short story and I don’t think she was a call girl.

Ok, its not ‘The Last Rung on the Ladder’ but it’s really similar. In the mystery book, when the narrator talks about it, they report what the bystanders who saw the jump said - “afterwards they said she didn’t even hesitate”etc. It’s so similar to both that and the Judy Bloom. But not. Arrrghhh.

Wasn’t there a Columbo episode where the villain hypnotises a woman to believe she is going swimming and she jumps to her death?

No idea @soola - it’s definitely a novel and not an episode of columbo!

Bummmppp