IN HER DEFENSE

In a battle between a celebrity and a supposed charlatan, the real mysteries involve a young woman at the center of the fight and one at the margins.

In London, a defamation trial is happening which is, at its heart, a struggle for the soul of a young woman named Mary. The combatants are Mary’s mother, Anna Finbow, a beloved TV star but perhaps not mother-of-the-year material, and Mary’s charismatic, controlling therapist, Jean Guest, whose unorthodox methods appear to be predatory and cultish. Neither are reliable witnesses, but least reliable of all is the book’s narrator, Augusta Bird, Anna’s former dog walker. Gus was coming off a bad breakup when she first found employment with Anna, but her loneliness and depression don’t explain some shifty behaviors. The timing was odd as well; the trial was approaching and Anna hadn’t seen Mary in years. Gus, poor and with no family support, is sympathetic and suspicious at the same time. What’s her game and why? And what does Mary have to do with it? There are no neat bows on this moody, twisty psychological thriller. Eventually, chapters go back in time to show these characters’ complex lives and the depths of misery from which they suffer, giving the book a pervasive sense of unease. But these portraits of misery are keenly observed—realistic and specific to the vulnerabilities especially of young women, regardless of status. Malicka is tuned in to the ways these women might try to wrest control over situations where they have so little, circumstances that make them susceptible to predation. As the book goes on, more and more questions arise about victimhood, power, perspective. Many are unanswerable, all are fascinating.

Readers will be on tenterhooks waiting for the outcome of the trial.