THE WIDOWMAKER
by Hannah Morrissey
A pair of murky mysteries haunt the residents of a deceptively sleepy Wisconsin town.
In wintry Black Harbor, Morgan Mori goes on an impromptu first date with Bennett Reynolds, CEO of a private equity firm, after a gig photographing a family Christmas celebration at the Reynolds estate, a “sea glass-colored mansion at the top of the bluff.” Their mutual chemistry becomes clear when Morgan shares how she’s landed back home in Black Harbor after an unhappy tenure in nearby Chicago. Later that same night, as she stops at a gas station, she witnesses the murder of police detective Brix Garrison. Alternate chapters are told from the perspectives of Morgan and Garrison’s partner, Ryan Hudson, who is introduced already surveying the Fast Mart crime scene before the chapter describing Morgan’s arrival. Hudson is haunted by the crime and driven to solve it. The intriguing result is that significant plot details are doled out piecemeal. Timelines are also often tantalizingly fuzzy. Fittingly, the story focuses on two unsolved crimes: the murder of Garrison and the disappearance of Clive Reynolds, wealthy patriarch of that influential Reynolds family, 20 years ago. Morrissey is unstinting in piling on the creepy atmosphere, from Morgan’s surname to Black Harbor to a part of town called “The Ruins” to her title, which refers to a classic car, a Porsche 930 Turbo, registered to Clive Reynolds.
An intriguing mix of police procedural, gothic potboiler, and psychological thriller that will keep readers on their toes.