By Your Side by Ruth Jones

 

Arranging the funeral and tracking down relatives of a loner who died on a remote Hebridean island is the final job of Linda Standish before she retires. Little does she realise the impact it will have on her future.

By Your Side is the fourth book from Ruth Jones and easily her best, it offers the reader everything; romance, humour, mystery and heartbreak. Filled with a multitude of remarkable characters, I could have happily turned back to the beginning and started reading again once I'd finished.

Linda is happy with her life, although she's divorced she isn't lonely as her son and grandson currently live with her, she also loves her job working for the local council in the Unclaimed Heirs Unit. When someone dies and there's no obvious next of kin it's Linda's job to arrange the funeral and try to trace any distant relatives. Unfortunately, downsizing at the council is forcing early retirement on Linda. In the run-up to Christmas she has one last job to do, travel to a Hebridean island and bring back the body of Levi Norman, a loner who has lived on the island for six years.

You get an immediate idea of Linda's character, in her role working for the council she is extremely professional, the rest of the time she is cheerful and easygoing, apart from where her ex-daughter-in-law is concerned. Linda is accompanied on her trip by a local undertaker, someone she went to school with. The pair delight in annoying each other and it's very funny the way they always address each other by their full names, Linda Standish and Fergus Murray.

Once the pair arrive on the island of Storrich we are introduced to a host of wonderful characters and a relaxed way of life. Everyone knows everyone else, doors are never locked and everybody helps out when the need arises. As Linda and Fergus are welcomed by the community, mystery surrounds why Levi never integrated. We are given a glimpse into the past and meet a younger Levi, a solitary figure, happy in his own company, with a strong sense of right and wrong. This leads to Levi unexpectedly finding happiness. I felt my heart breaking for Levi as the happiness was torn away from him in the cruelest possible way.

All of the different threads had me completely immersed, desperately wanting a happy ending for everyone involved. Ruth Jones has managed to tread a fine line between uplifting and melancholy, with a huge dollop of comfort thrown in for good measure. I would love to see a return to the island of Storrich in the future. 

By Your Side by Ruth Jones will be published on 22nd May 2025 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Transworld Publishers for a review copy.

Author Details

Ruth Jones MBE is well known for her television work, most notably BBC One’s multi-award-winning Gavin and Stacey, co-written with James Corden, in which she played Nessa Jenkins. The 2019 and 2024 Christmas specials of this well-loved show garnered viewing figures of 18 million and 21 million respectively. Ruth also created and co-wrote several series of Stella for Sky TV, for which she was BAFTA nominated. Other TV work includes Hattie, Nighty Night and Saxondale. In 2024 Ruth played Mother Superior in Sister Act the Musical at London’s Dominion Theatre. Her latest acting role is Elena Ravenscroft in Harlan Coben’s Run Away for Netflix.

Ruth’s novels have sold over a million copies. Never Greener was a Sunday Times bestseller for fifteen weeks, three weeks at number one, as well as WHSmith Fiction Book of the Year 2018, a nominated Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards, and a Zoe Ball Book Club pick. Her second novel, Us Three, and her third novel, Love Untold, were also instant Sunday Times bestsellers. Love Untold was a Waterstones Paperback of the Year, as well as a Richard & Judy Book Club pick.