An evocative thriller that doesn’t quite stick the landing.
In Royce’s novel, a troubled young woman rushes into marriage, only to learn that her husband isn’t quite the man that he appears to be.
In 1987 Los Angeles, rising soap-opera star Eleanor Russell has just wed the handsome antiques dealer Orlando Montague. They rushed to the altar after a whirlwind six-week romance, and Eleanor hasn’t yet told him everything about her past, including the fact that her father—also an antiques dealer—abandoned her when she was 6 during a tour of a cave at Ruby Falls in Tennessee; the trauma still feels fresh 20 years later. Eleanor and Orlando buy a rose-covered cottage in Hollywood together and she quickly lands the lead role in a remake of the classic film adaptation Rebecca. Along the way, she adopts a feisty cat that wanders onto her property. Then Orlando starts to behave oddly; first, he refuses to let Eleanor’s mother come visit them for Thanksgiving: “You’re all the family and friends I need this year,” he tells his wife. Then Eleanor realizes that he’s been snooping through her desk and suspects that he may be having an affair with their real estate agent. She soon worries she’s being conned, and wonders what else her new spouse might be capable of doing. At the same time, Dottie Robinson, a clairvoyant who lives next door, helps Eleanor delve into the secrets of her father’s disappearance—and specifically, whether he planned the vanishing himself. Can she uncover the truth without losing her grip on reality?
Royce’s prose is taut and propulsive, as when she regrets telling her mother that she’s never been happier in her life: “Why did I say that? I shouldn’t have used that phrase. That is the thing they always say on soap operas before the axe falls—before the cancer diagnosis or hidden twins or un-dead-ex-wives come down from the attic.” The book has a fun premise, and the pages turn easily as Eleanor’s life slowly turns into a mystery worthy of a film—one in which she can’t even be sure of the identities of the people closest to her. That said, the narration inevitably gets a bit unreliable, and the ending, while surprising in its details, isn’t quite as satisfying as it should be, nor is it terribly fresh. The extent to which the reader will be taken in by this story will likely depend on how familiar they are with similar tales in the thriller genre; the works of author Daphne du Maurier and filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock loom large over Eleanor’s plight, as does that of Shirley Jackson, the writer of The Haunting of Hill House. Still, many readers will find this journey to be a fun one, as it inhabits a hallucinatory Hollywood where fact and fiction mingle freely and even the smallest acts can feel ominous. Although the book may not fully live up to the works that inspired it, it’s an often enjoyable pastiche with plenty of twists and turns.
An evocative thriller that doesn’t quite stick the landing.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64293-709-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
A weird, wild ride.
Celebrity scandal and a haunted lake drive the narrative in this bestselling author’s latest serving of subtly ironic suspense.
Sager’s debut, Final Girls (2017), was fun and beautifully crafted. His most recent novels—Home Before Dark (2020) and Survive the Night (2021) —have been fun and a bit rickety. His new novel fits that mold. Narrator Casey Fletcher grew up watching her mother dazzle audiences, and then she became an actor herself. While she never achieves the “America’s sweetheart” status her mother enjoyed, Casey makes a career out of bit parts in movies and on TV and meatier parts onstage. Then the death of her husband sends her into an alcoholic spiral that ends with her getting fired from a Broadway play. When paparazzi document her substance abuse, her mother exiles her to the family retreat in Vermont. Casey has a dry, droll perspective that persists until circumstances overwhelm her, and if you’re getting a Carrie Fisher vibe from Casey Fletcher, that is almost certainly not an accident. Once in Vermont, she passes the time drinking bourbon and watching the former supermodel and the tech mogul who live across the lake through a pair of binoculars. Casey befriends Katherine Royce after rescuing her when she almost drowns and soon concludes that all is not well in Katherine and Tom’s marriage. Then Katherine disappears….It would be unfair to say too much about what happens next, but creepy coincidences start piling up, and eventually, Casey has to face the possibility that maybe some of the eerie legends about Lake Greene might have some truth to them. Sager certainly delivers a lot of twists, and he ventures into what is, for him, new territory. Are there some things that don’t quite add up at the end? Maybe, but asking that question does nothing but spoil a highly entertaining read.
A weird, wild ride.Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-18319-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
