A highly readable tale about confronting self-deceptions.
A woman begins to doubt her sanity after a run-in with a stranger in this suspense novel.
Palm Beach County, Florida, 1984. Victoria Winston isn’t a sad lady. She has a great job, a great house, a great daughter, and great friends. She’s enjoying wine and hors d’oeuvres with two of these friends one night when a stranger appears at her door: a young, elfin woman named Jessie who immediately rubs Victoria the wrong way. Jessie’s car has broken down at the bottom of the driveway so Victoria of course allows her to use her phone. After a long wait for a cab, the woman finally leaves. Victoria doesn’t think too much of it. But then things begin to change for Victoria. The “brainteasers” come: little instances of forgetfulness or uncharacteristic behavior. She finds her tube of toothpaste squeezed in an odd place, a mysterious cup left out on her dock, and a damp towel that she doesn’t remember using. What can be causing these lapses? Disease? Stress? Victoria begins to realize that maybe she isn’t as happy as she thought she was. After all, her daughter, Christine, has been distant since Victoria’s divorce from her husband, Oscar—in part because Victoria has been keeping a secret about him from Christine. Victoria has not seen the last of Jessie, and the myths the protagonist tells herself may no longer be enough to hold back the dark. Belgrave’s prose is smooth and understated, building tension through its accumulation of small details, as in this passage narrated by Victoria: “They started up again. Nothing extraordinary. Nothing particularly bizarre. But what to make of the cracker crumbs on the dining room table? What to think of the fringed throw pillow stiffly wedged between the seat cushion and the back of the recliner? What of the banana peel in the kitchen trash can?” Readers will be quickly sucked into Victoria’s story, unsure of what direction it will take. The novel presents one of those engaging fictional worlds where everything seems slightly off, even if readers (and the protagonists) can’t immediately identify the source of their unease. The author favors delving into her characters’ psychology over flashier plot devices, and the result is a book that manages to be an emotionally compelling page-turner.
A highly readable tale about confronting self-deceptions.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2020
ISBN: 979-8-62-182230-9
Page Count: 557
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Small-town claustrophobia and intimacies alike propel this twist-filled psychological thriller.
The loss of her police officer father and the discovery of an abandoned car in a local lake raise chilling questions regarding a young woman’s family history.
When Hazel Sharp returns to her hometown of Mirror Lake, North Carolina, for her father’s memorial, she and the other townspeople are confronted by a challenging double whammy: As they’re grieving the loss of beloved longtime police officer Detective Perry Holt, a disturbing sight appears in the lake, whose waterline is receding because of an ongoing drought—an old, unidentifiable car, which has likely been lurking there for years. Hazel temporarily leaves her Charlotte-based building-renovation business in the capable hands of her partners and reconnects with her brothers, Caden and Gage; her Uncle Roy; her old fling and neighbor, Nico; and her schoolfriend, Jamie, now a mother and married to Caden. Tiny, relentless suspicions rise to the metaphorical surface along with that waterlogged vehicle: There have been a slew of minor break-ins; two people go missing; and then, a second abandoned car is discovered. The novel digs deeper into Hazel’s family history—her father was a widow when he married Hazel’s mother, who later left the family, absconding with money and jewels—and Miranda, a consummate professional when it comes to exposing the small community tensions that naturally arise when people live in close proximity for generations, exposes revelation after twisty revelation: “Everything mattered disproportionately in a small town. Your success, but also your failure. Everyone knows might as well have been our town motto.”
Small-town claustrophobia and intimacies alike propel this twist-filled psychological thriller.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781668010440
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Marysue Rucci Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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
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