If only the clever ending were worth the trouble it takes to get there.
On his deathbed, a famous mystery novelist invites a knowledgeable fan to come write his life story.
After a long career of bestsellers, Sebastian Trapp hasn't produced a book in decades, since his wife and son disappeared under mysterious circumstance following a New Year's Eve party. Twenty years later, with three months to live, he has one tale left to tell: the story of his life, which may or may not include answers to the questions surrounding the disappearances—for which many believe he is responsible. Nicky Hunter, an expert in detective fiction and a longtime correspondent of Trapp's, is his appointed amanuensis; she takes on the task with relish only slightly diluted by concern for her own longevity. Trapp's current San Francisco household consists of his erstwhile assistant and now second wife, Diana; his adult daughter, Madeleine (a failure-to-launch whose point of view alternates with Nicky's); and the latest edition of a French bulldog named Watson, whose many taxidermic predecessors are lined up in Nicky's assigned bedroom. There's also Sebastian's brutish nephew, his British buddy, his widowed mother (his brother also died mysteriously around the same time as the other two), a couple of colorful cops, and a corpse in the koi pond that is revealed on page 1 but not found until halfway through, clearly intended to goose the page-turning. If you enjoyed Woman in the Window (2018), be warned that this novel is its opposite. While the debut had truly breathtaking forward momentum but a somewhat ludicrous solution, this time we have an unbelievably leisurely build during which we pursue patent red herrings, read a lot about the weather and geography of San Francisco, and are hopefully impressed by quotes and references to Christie, Chandler, Hammett, etc. "The past isn't gone: It's just waiting," a catchphrase of Trapp's, is certainly the case. Unfortunately it waits too long.
If only the clever ending were worth the trouble it takes to get there.Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780062678454
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.
Dead bodies turn up in the first sentence of the prologue in McFadden’s latest domestic thriller.
The mystery of who died is at the pulsating heart of this propulsive tale. As Chapter 1 begins, Naomi arrives home to find the locks changed on the front door of the gorgeous home she shares with her husband, Jeremy, and their 5-year-old son, Teddy. Jeremy steps out the front door and convinces Naomi to move out while he has their home renovated, a plan Naomi knows nothing about. It’s all a ruse, though, as the next day Jeremy tells her he wants a divorce. Naomi is shellshocked and soon discovers that Jeremy is having an affair with Veronica, a beautiful younger woman. What seems at first like a stereotypical story about a man who leaves his wife turns into something else when Naomi decides she’ll do anything to get Veronica away from Jeremy and Teddy, and Veronica decides to fight for what she thinks she deserves. Fans of stalker novels will cringe with delight as creepy things start to happen. Teddy’s stuffed elephant, a gift from Veronica, is found impaled on a kitchen knife; Naomi suspects Jeremy is gaslighting her and that Veronica tried to poison her. A weird confrontation among Jeremy, Veronica, and Naomi at Teddy’s birthday party, to which Naomi shows up uninvited, is priceless. There are three main characters, and any or all of them may be unreliable narrators. Packing the plot with dark, gasp-inducing twists, McFadden outdoes herself in a story about how highly emotional people engage in risky behavior to get what they want—but in this novel, for better or worse, not everyone will survive.
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249631
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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