A quietly absorbing story of fractured family ties and deception.
A high school teacher learns dark, unwelcome secrets may be hiding in her family’s tumultuous lives in Wells’ thriller.
Floridian Leigh Prentiss is upset when, at the last minute, her husband, Garrett, bows out of a family getaway. It’s not entirely surprising, though, as his law firm keeps him busy. So Leigh and the couple’s two kids, 15-year-old Jay and 7-year-old Jenny, head to their beloved three-story beach house on the East Coast of Florida. There’s good news: Leigh’s younger sister, Kristen, will join the family for at least a couple of days. It’s a chance for Leigh to confide in her sister about Garrett, who’s been distant—the once-close husband and wife now habitually argue. Garrett having an affair is definitely one possibility, but there’s a lot more going on than Leigh knows. Kristen, for instance, hasn’t told her everything about her own recent split, brought on after she caught her husband cheating. And Garrett is working through a few things of his own, namely an unexpected hitch with a startup company he’s got a share in. Meanwhile, over in Midnight Beach, Leigh has more than one happy run-in with handsome former Marine Jack McDermott, an ex-investment advisor turned beach patrol manager. His warmhearted nature and friendship are exactly what Leigh needs…but perhaps something deeper is growing between the two. In the midst of all this chaos, there’s someone angry enough to kill.
Wells’ story is an impressive exercise in subtlety. It draws readers in with its depiction of a strained marriage and a mother worried that her children miss their absent father; readers, at the outset, only know as much as Leigh, who simply can’t explain the “rift” between the couple. The alternating narrative perspectives of Kristen, Garrett, and others gradually illuminate all that’s been unfolding over the previous six months. The author gleefully piles on savory thriller ingredients: snooping through emails, the appearance of threatening notes, and suppressed resentment sparking hate-fueled revenge. Nevertheless, a few morsels wind up lost in the mix, such as one serious crime that the story, rather oddly, barely acknowledges. Leigh and Jack’s nascent romance is nuanced; they hit it off on an emotional level (“She felt as though he was an old friend, although they’d met officially only last evening at the concert”). But the novel’s highlight is the connection between Leigh and her kids. Like all great mothers, she loves them unconditionally, even as the incessantly sullen teen Jay ignores her and the much younger Jenny clings to her. Wells’ concise prose keeps the narrative moving at a steady beat—surprising turns come one after another. Most of the intersecting sub-plots wrap up convincingly; some are predictable, while others are left open, implying the directions certain relationships will go. The murder happens later in the tale than some readers may anticipate, but its impact is great and leads to an unforgettable ending.
A quietly absorbing story of fractured family ties and deception.Pub Date: July 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798375800363
Page Count: 305
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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