A TANGLED AFFAIR

A woman untangles the secrets of her marriage while discovering her true self in Scardino’s debut novel.

From the outside, Clair Bondi’s life in modern-day Philadelphia looks “stellar,” with a successful husband, two overachieving daughters, and several high-end real estate properties. But beneath the sparkling surface of her life, she often feels alone and neglected by her husband, Vince, a “type A entrepreneurial guy who can’t slow down.” Unable to ignore her suspicions that he’s having an affair, she hires a private eye to dig up some evidence. After learning that her suspicions are correct, she plans to seek a divorce, but before she can do so, Vince is murdered during an armed robbery at a convenience store. It’s at this point that the “tangled affair” of Vince’s shady life begins to unravel, leaving Clair feeling like a fool. Her quest to make sense of what her life has become takes her from Philadelphia to New York City to Turks and Caicos, where she uncovers even deeper secrets but also opens her heart to new romantic possibilities. Scardino’s writing is straightforward and conversational, and she infuses Clair’s character with a sense of honest self-reflection that feels authentic, as when she castigates herself for what she sees as a weakness: “When they talk about flaws in people, that would be mine. A simple summation that should be etched on my tombstone: Clair Bondi, guilty of naiveté.” The plot offers several unpredictable turns as new information about the characters is revealed. Unfortunately, though, the work often gets bogged down with unnecessary details about privileged lifestyles, from the names of high-end clothing brands to granular aspect of lavish spreads of food, and this has the effect of compromising the pacing of the narrative.

A novel full of twists that frequently gets sidetracked by minutiae.