Here One Moment is the story of Cherry Lockwood’s life. Starting with a dramatic scene on a plane flight from Hobart to Sydney, where she predicts the age and cause of death of nearly all of the passengers on board. Cherry’s life is then told in a series of flashbacks, from losing her father at the age of 8 until the death of her second husband, Ned, when she is in her early 70s. Ned’s death is a few months before the plane flight. Interspersed with Cherry’s story are the vignettes of a handful of passengers who, according to Cherry, have less than a year to live.
Many of these passengers or their spouses overreact to the predictions given by this unknown and of no account little old lady. I found this very amusing and chuckled my way through the first half of the book. I expect that I found this more amusing than Moriarty intended. I do find people overacting to be very funny, even in real life (which has proved to be embarrassing).
Often, Cherry’s predictions stir up or uncover issues that the passengers already had, such as an obsessive-compulsive disorder, a sleepwalking disorder, depression that seems to travel down family lines and a manipulative boss. By the end of the story, many of these issues are resolved or better managed.
Through the story, Moriarty considers the validity of psychics and gives them a small amount of credibility, but also acknowledges that they can operate as pseudo-counsellors, telling people what they want to hear.
The story didn’t have Moriarty’s trademark surprising twist at the end, but nevertheless, it was an enjoyable and satisfying read.
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