Frank Weiss met a red-haired artist on the 88 bus in London in 1962, and promptly lost her number. Sixty years later and in the early stages of dementia, he rides the 88 route, hoping to run into her again. Red-haired Libby is fresh off a breakup with nothing to do but babysit her nephew. One day on the bus, she sketches a punk with a mohawk hairdo, who promptly turns around and yells at her. When Libby meets Frank, she feels compelled to find his lost (potential) love, and Frank insists she enlist the help of his carer--who turns out to be the punk. Dylan thinks Libby's idea to plaster the route with missed-connection signs is a bad one, but he helps anyway. As they work, they meet people whose lives Frank has touched, while Frank faces the fact that he may not be able to live independently anymore. As she did in The Last Chance Library (2021), Sampson corrals a cast of misfits for a common cause, resulting in a funny, sweet, tearjerker of a tale.

Three intertwined stories--one set in 1962 and two in 2022--are linked to rides on London's bus route 88. In 1962, 22-year-old Frank's life changed forever. He met a woman on the bus, she sketched a picture of him, wrote her phone number on her bus ticket, and advised him to go for his dream of being an actor. But their prospective date at the National Gallery was never to be, because he lost the ticket on his way home. Now in his 80s, Frank has been diagnosed with dementia after a 50-year career in the theater, and he rides the same route searching for the lost woman, chatting with strangers, and learning about everyone around him. Libby is turning 30 and has recently been unceremoniously dumped by Simon, her partner of 8 years. Without a home or a job--she did accounting work for Simon's gardening business--she lands at her sister Rebecca's London home and begins looking after her 4-year-old nephew, whose nanny had a family emergency. Libby meets Frank on the bus on the way to Rebecca's house and decides to begin helping him track down his long-lost girl. Frank's carer--a mohawked punk named Dylan--joins her efforts. Someone named Peggy (could she be Frank's girl?) narrates the third story, describing what she sees on the same route. Author Sampson has done a masterful job of misdirection, offering tidbits of information that seem to lead one way but then are shown to have been leading somewhere else altogether. This is an engaging read that touches on aging and the physical incapacities it brings, lost and misplaced love, the power of accepting people as they truly are, finding the reliance to build a life on one's own, and the family that can be forged in friendships. A warming story of love and happiness found despite hardships, difficulties, and the passage of time. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In Sampson's amiable latest (after The Last Chance Library), bookkeeper Libby Nichols is thrown a curveball by her live-in boyfriend and boss. Simon, declaring their life has become too "predictable," dumps Libby, putting her out of a job. She moves from Surrey to London to help her sister with childcare in exchange for a place to live. On Libby's first day in the city, she meets Frank, an elderly man who's been riding the bus for 60 years looking to reconnect with the woman of his dreams. She had written her name and number on a bus ticket, which Frank lost, and he's spent his days since looking for her. Libby teams up with Dylan, a mohawked punk and Frank's caregiver, to search for the red-haired woman of Frank's memory as his dementia worsens. Joining in the search are quirky characters whose lives Frank has touched over the years and who want to pay him back. In the meantime, Simon resurfaces with surprises of his own and Libby has to decide what she wants out of her life. Despite some predictable turns and beats, there's plenty of tension. This will keep readers turning the pages. Agent: Hayley Steed, Madeleine Milburn Literary. (Aug.)