“The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper”

 a debut novel by Brit Phaedra Patrick, the novel is along the lines of “This is Your Life, Harriet Chance!” “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand,” and “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye.” In other words, the main characters are on the wrong side of 50, British, and on a soul-searching, life-changing journey. Arthur Pepper is approaching his one-year anniversary of widowhood to a woman he was married to for 40+ years. As he begins cleaning out his dead wife’s closet, he discovers a charm bracelet in her wardrobe he does not recognize. He embarks on a quest to discover the meaning behind each charm and in so doing learns some difficult truths about the woman he was married to for decades that he thought he knew completely.  As the title states, Arthur is charming if not on the road to dull when the story begins. The bracelet is the novel’s tool to trigger the start of his breaking out of the sameness of his daily routine. A cozy novel I recommend.