Despite the menacing damsel-in-distress prologue, thriftily repeated verbatim in chapter 28, both the mystery and the killer...
White shelves hard-used series heroine Bailey Weggins (Lethally Blond, 2007, etc.), who could certainly use a break, to create just as much havoc for another New York professional who wants to have it all, except for the corpse.
Now that Lake Warren’s estranged husband Jack has contested the joint-custody arrangements for their two children, it looks as if work is her only solace. So she throws herself into her job as a freelance marketing expert for the Park Avenue Fertility Center with redoubled energy. Unfortunately, she also throws herself into the bed of Dr. Mark Keaton, the come-hither consultant who’s just announced his intention of joining the firm. Lake wonders briefly how her ill-advised fling will sit with Jack’s lawyer but gives no thought to the possible repercussions if Mark gets stabbed to death while she’s catching a post-coital snooze on his balcony. Was the killer a jealous lover (evidently the jungles of Gotham are full of those), a Park Avenue client who thought she’d been the target of a monstrous fraud, or a colleague who’d filched the key to Mark’s apartment from nurse Maggie Donohue? Lake will have to follow the trail while she’s looking over one shoulder at the increasingly curious police and over the other at someone who seems bent on terrorizing or killing her.
Despite the menacing damsel-in-distress prologue, thriftily repeated verbatim in chapter 28, both the mystery and the killer are too lightweight to vex your sleep. Job No. 1 here is multiplying suspicions, not resolving them.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-06-157661-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
Be warned: It's a stay-up-all-night kind of book. Compulsively readable.
Amy Whey’s sins come back to haunt her when she’s extorted for money by a beautiful stranger in Jackson’s (The Almost Sisters, 2017, etc.) first thriller.
It was supposed to be book club as usual: a group of suburban mothers gathering to talk over a glass of wine or two and then going home to bed. But when new neighbor Angelica Roux shows up at hostess Amy’s door, it doesn’t take long for all hell to break loose. The booze flows freely, and soon the women are engaged in a game: What is the worst thing you did today? This week? This month? In your life? There are many women in the gathering with secrets to protect, but none more than Amy, who, as a teenager, committed a terrible crime that almost destroyed her. Saved by her love for diving, and then by meeting her husband and stepdaughter, Amy has worked hard to build a normal, stable life; she even has a new baby. Angelica has come to threaten all of this; she clearly knows about Amy’s past and will expose her to her loved ones if Amy doesn’t pay her. As Amy tries desperately to outscheme Angelica, she also realizes just how much she has to fight for—and what she might be willing to do to keep her family safe and her secrets buried. Jackson’s novel is chock-full of dramatic reveals and twisty turns, but she paces them out well, dropping them like regularly spaced bombshells. Just when the reader thinks they know what might lie at the heart of the novel, the ground shifts seismically, and the truth removes again to a distance. It’s skillfully done. Amy herself is an openly flawed and relatable character fighting to keep sacred the one thing she values most: her normal, loving, messy life.
Be warned: It's a stay-up-all-night kind of book. Compulsively readable.Pub Date: July 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-285531-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
This thriller is taut and fast-paced but lacks compelling protagonists.
Three siblings who have been out of touch for more than 20 years grapple with their unsettling childhoods, but when the youngest inherits the family home, all are drawn back together.
At the age of 25, Libby Jones learns she has inherited a large London house that was held in a trust left to her by her birthparents. When she visits the lawyer, she is shocked to find out that she was put up for adoption when she was 10 months old after her parents died in the house in an apparent suicide pact with an unidentified man and that she has an older brother and sister who were teenagers at the time of their parents' deaths and haven't been seen since. Meanwhile, in alternating narratives, we're introduced to Libby's sister, Lucy Lamb, who's on the verge of homelessness with her two children in the south of France, and her brother, Henry Lamb, who's attempting to recall the last few disturbing years with his parents during which they lost their wealth and were manipulated into letting friends move into their home. These friends included the controlling but charismatic David Thomsen, who moved his own wife and two children into the rooms upstairs. Henry also remembers his painful adolescent confusion as he became wildly infatuated with Phineas, David’s teenage son. Meanwhile, Libby connects with Miller Roe, the journalist who covered the story about her family, and the pair work together to find her brother and sister, determine what happened when she was an infant, and uncover who has recently been staying in the vacant house waiting for Libby to return. As Jewell (Watching You, 2018, etc.) moves back and forth from the past to the present, the narratives move swiftly toward convergence in her signature style, yet with the exception of Lucy’s story, little suspense is built up and the twists can’t quite make up for the lack of deep characters and emotionally weighty moments.
This thriller is taut and fast-paced but lacks compelling protagonists.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-9010-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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