A smartly plotted and altogether successful union of legal thriller and domestic suspense.
A white-collar criminal defense attorney takes on the case of a millionaire accused of the brutal murder of his wife in McCreight’s new thriller.
It’s only been a few months since Lizzie Kitsakis joined the prestigious New York law firm Young & Crane. It’s not her dream job, but her husband Sam’s alcoholism has put them in a precarious financial position, and she can’t afford to be picky. When her college friend Zach Grayson, now a millionaire, calls her from Rikers, he tells her he’s the prime suspect in the gruesome murder of his wife, Amanda, and is being held on an assault charge with no bail while awaiting indictment. He wants Lizzie, and no one else, to represent him, and she’s surprised when her boss tells her to take the case. Lizzie believes Zach is innocent, and by all accounts, Amanda was a devoted wife and a wonderful mother to their son, Case, who is away at camp. No one can think of a motive for her murder. However, the events leading up to the case are fodder for a gossip-obsessed press: Zach and Amanda reportedly attended a party the night of her death, at which parents of students from the upscale Brooklyn Country Day school let loose while the kids were away at various summer activities. The hostess even encouraged couples to use her upstairs rooms for a bit of partner swapping. Meanwhile, someone has hacked into the records of Brooklyn Country Day families, digging up dirt and threatening blackmail. Then Lizzie discovers Amanda’s journals, and it becomes clear that her life and marriage may have been darker and more complex than they appeared. Lizzie knows a bit about keeping secrets, and as she gets closer to the truth, she wonders if Zach might not be so innocent after all. McCreight’s law credentials lend authenticity to the legal proceedings and to Lizzie’s high-stakes tango with a formidable assistant district attorney eager to put her in her place. Lizzie’s narrative alternates with one that details Amanda’s movements for a few days before her murder, and McCreight expertly weaves multiple plot threads with a few sly red herrings, paving the way to a series of surprising, and satisfying, reveals.
A smartly plotted and altogether successful union of legal thriller and domestic suspense.Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-236768-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it...
Harris, creator of grand, symphonic thrillers from Fatherland (1992) to An Officer and a Spy (2014), scores with a chamber piece of a novel set in the Vatican in the days after a fictional pope dies.
Fictional, yes, but the nameless pontiff has a lot in common with our own Francis: He’s famously humble, shunning the lavish Apostolic Palace for a small apartment, and he is committed to leading a church that engages with the world and its problems. In the aftermath of his sudden death, rumors circulate about the pope’s intention to fire certain cardinals. At the center of the action is Cardinal Lomeli, Dean of the College of Cardinals, whose job it is to manage the conclave that will elect a new pope. He believes it is also his duty to uncover what the pope knew before he died because some of the cardinals in question are in the running to succeed him. “In the running” is an apt phrase because, as described by Harris, the papal conclave is the ultimate political backroom—albeit a room, the Sistine Chapel, covered with Michelangelo frescoes. Vying for the papal crown are an African cardinal whom many want to see as the first black pope, a press-savvy Canadian, an Italian arch-conservative (think Cardinal Scalia), and an Italian liberal who wants to continue the late pope’s campaign to modernize the church. The novel glories in the ancient rituals that constitute the election process while still grounding that process in the real world: the Sistine Chapel is fitted with jamming devices to thwart electronic eavesdropping, and the pressure to act quickly is increased because “rumours that the pope is dead are already trending on social media.”
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it is pure temptation.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-451-49344-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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