A thriller with a familiar foundation but some contemporary spice.
A second wife is drawn into the tragedy that killed the first—and must find out the truth before she’s next.
Needing to make some quick money, Samira accepts a waitressing job at a charity event where she has a meet-cute with famous golfer Roland Graham. Soon they are an item, and he’s wowing her with trips and gifts—and in the bedroom. Samira’s brother cautions her, though, to be careful; Roland’s first wife, Melanie, died under mysterious circumstances, and there’s a lot of speculation (on social media, anyway) that Roland was responsible. Samira’s doubts are soon put to rest by Roland’s reassurances, and they get married and move into Roland’s mansion in Colorado—the mansion where he used to live with Melanie. Though the setting lacks a true gothic flavor, there is a definite current of unease that affects Samira’s embracing of this luxurious lifestyle; she meets Roland’s handsome cousin, Dylan, and the housekeeper/chef, Yadira, and then she finds Melanie’s journals. Williams offers these journals in Melanie’s voice, so the reader slowly begins to learn more about Melanie’s life and marriage at the same time that Samira does: the distance that gradually grows between her and her handsome husband; her attraction to dashing Dylan; her complicated sister drama. Samira can’t confront her husband with these truths, but as she reads further and digs deeper into Melanie’s past, she understands that she must discover the truth behind her death—before it’s too late for Samira, too. Despite some comparisons to du Maurier’s Rebecca, the novel is much less atmospheric and nuanced than that classic. Williams does give both Melanie and Samira multiple dimensions; they're flawed but also strong and determined, and the twist at the end is a surprise.
A thriller with a familiar foundation but some contemporary spice.Pub Date: June 28, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4967-3111-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dafina/Kensington
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
Squeamish readers will find this isn’t their cup of tea.
Dexter meets Killing Eve in Wallace’s dark comic thriller debut.
While accepting condolences following her father’s funeral, 30-something narrator Claire receives an email saying that one of her paintings is a finalist for a prize. But her joy is short-circuited the next morning when she learns in a second apologetic note that the initial email had been sent to the wrong Claire. The sender, Lucas Kane, is “terribly, terribly sorry” for his mistake. Claire, torn between her anger and suicidal thoughts, has doubts about his sincerity and stalks him to a London pub, where his fate is sealed: “I stare at Lucas Kane in real life, and within moments I know. He doesn’t look sorry.” She dispatches and buries Lucas in her back garden, but this crime does not go unnoticed. Proud of her meticulous standards as a serial killer, Claire wonders if her grief for her father is making her reckless as she seeks to identify the blackmailer among the members of her weekly bereavement support group. The female serial killer as antihero is a growing subgenre (see Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister, the Serial Killer, 2018), and Wallace’s sociopathic protagonist is a mordantly amusing addition; the tool she uses to interact with ordinary people while hiding her homicidal nature is especially sardonic: “Whenever I’m unsure of how I’m expected to respond, I use a cliché. Even if I’m not sure what it means, even if I use it incorrectly, no one ever seems to mind.” The well-written storyline tackles some tough subjects—dementia, elder abuse, and parental cruelty—but the convoluted plot starts to drag at the halfway point. Given the lack of empathy in Claire’s narration, most of the characters come across as not very likable, and the reader tires of her sneering contempt.
Squeamish readers will find this isn’t their cup of tea.Pub Date: April 16, 2024
ISBN: 9780143136170
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Penguin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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
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