The Last Piece, by Terrie Todd (2021)

If you love stories with interconnected threads drawing characters’ lives together at the end, this one’s for you. Especially if you love strong, evocative description and characters with heart.

The Last Piece begins in 1937 with a talented young artist forced to sell the portrait of his dead sweetheart to a jigsaw puzzle company. He does so with a prayer of sorts that the one-of-a-kind puzzle not be completed until he’s reunited with her.

What follow are a string of short stories from that date until 2017 where various people attempt the puzzle at key moments in their lives. If they don’t finish the puzzle, they do experience situations that shape their lives and memories. And in 2017 the mystery of the artist’s identity and the threads that join the characters find conclusion.

Terrie Todd writes settings so real you can taste the dust and feel the sun and the breeze. She’s an award-winning Canadian author of historical fiction, plays and short works as well as the nonfiction book, Out of My Mind: A Decade of Faith and Humour. For more about the author, visit her blog  terrietodd.blogspot.com or her Goodreads page.

[Review copy from the public library.]