A Quilting of Scars by Lucy E.M. Black

A Quilting of Scars by Lucy E.M. Black is a tale of time passing, the years clocking by, loved ones leaving, and the body getting older. Memories crowd the brain, thoughts swell, and mysteries demand to be sorted. Secrets won’t be shoved to the boundaries any longer.

The story revolves around Larkin Beattie and his friendship with Paul, when Paul finds himself at the centre of a double murder and a fire that destroys a family farm. There is a mystery to uncover, taking place in the detailed life on the farm during the late 1800s. Black’s flair for writing superb and timely dialogue keeps the reader planted in this time and space.

Larkin’s house was alive with memories, as were the clothing, food, and household furnishings. His life is filled with his thoughts and secrets that are stored as one ages – a lifetime of lived experiences, the good, the bad, the curious, the wretched. Black’s writing is detail-rich but never bogs the reader down.

“Larkin was fifty-one now, almost the same age as his father was when he’d died a quarter century before. And in the last while Larkin had been thinking about his own mortality. About how the past could feel more present the further away you got from it.” -page 6

Black dances between the past and present with a seamless balancing sway, never missing a step. She questions the bounds of traditional expectations vs deeply rooted feelings of being ‘different’. The reader is asked: Does being different mean being evil? The path to different is closed off as an option, not allowing one to travel down an unspoken road. Black opens up thoughts of traditional marriage and feelings for a same-sex relationship, and how one must come to terms with this and with its harsh self- judgment and self-recrimination. Larkin attaches feelings of guilt to deserving turns of events with poor outcomes rather than thinking it’s simply the way that circumstances occur. No-fault attached to anyone or anything is a far-off concept and thoughts that Larkin doesn’t dare ponder.

No-fault attached to anyone or anything is a far-off concept and thoughts that Larkin doesn’t dare ponder.

Strength of imagery is masterfully detailed. The reader is easily transported to the farm life and into Larkin’s world. Skilled storytelling and wordsmithing spins a deepening fabric, whereby the reader is enveloped. Polished story-crafting allows for complexly searched personal intimacy and self-deconstruction. Not only is the reader embroiled in the murder mystery, one is completely invested in Larkin, and his sensitivities as a gay man living a life he doesn’t understand, but is fearful of revealing.

In a recent interview, Salman Rushdie said the fiction writer must “create a literary world that the reader wants to be in. And in that world you can entertain them and also challenge them.” Lucy E.M. Black does this in spades. Larkin’s world is compelling; both entertaining and challenging. Black creates a character in Larkin that asks “who are you”? And, how much of you can you share and still be loved and accepted?

Black creates a character in Larkin that asks “who are you”? And, how much of you can you share and still be loved and accepted?

A Quilting of Scars by Lucy E.M. Black is not to be missed. The mystery carries to the last page. Secrets are compounded, friendships and history questioned. Once you discover Larkin Beattie, you won’t soon forget him. Pick up a copy and experience this tale. Lucy E.M. Black is at the top of her game!

Author of The Marzipan Fruit Basket, Eleanor Courtown, Stella’s Carpet, The Brickworks, and Class Lessons: Stories of Vulnerable Youth, Lucy E.M. Black’s short stories have been published in Britain, Ireland, USA and Canada in a variety of literary journals and magazines. She lives in Port Perry, Ontario, the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island, First Nations.

Publisher: Now or Never Publishing (October 15, 2025)
Paperback 8″ x 5″ | 195 pages
ISBN: 9781989689899

Carrie Stanton

Managing Editor

TMR’s Managing Editor Carrie Stanton has a BA in Political Science from the University of Calgary. She is the author of The Jewel and Beast Bot, and picture books, Emmie and the Fierce Dragon and The Gardener. Carrie loves to write stories that grow wings and transport readers everywhere. She reads and enjoys stories from every genre.