Novels No. 113

 

Fiona Barton. The Widow. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2016.

Obsessions, of different shapes, drive this engrossing novel. When Glen Taylor is accidentally killed in front of a bus, his widow Jean is besieged mercilessly by the press for her story. Finally, Jean chooses to contract with a sympathetic journalist, Kate Waters, to escape the hounding; Kate’s newspaper pays for a hotel suite where they retreat with a photographer. Immersed in relative luxury, Jean – privately, in her head – reviews her life with Glen, dreading the obligatory interview next day. We watch her story unfolding in tandem with DI Bob Sparkes’s long investigation of a missing child, Bella Elliot. Jean comes across as a naïf in the beginning; she’d worked as a hairdresser from a young age, becoming the compliant wife adoring her husband Glen.

DI Sparkes and his team make an exhaustive but unsuccessful search for Bella. The longer it takes, the more obsessive he becomes to find whoever snatched the little girl. His journey is very complex via a few suspects but ultimately he believes that Glen took her—having discovered the man’s online porn addiction—but lacks solid evidence. Jean consistently stays loyal to Glen but with constant police visits and a growing media mob, she starts rationalizing some of his now-known behaviour. Plus her craving for motherhood increases with each tick of her biological clock. Glen is arrested and goes to trial for abduction since no body is involved. The trial falls apart, Glen goes home, it gets worse. Many more twists and turns are coming.

The Widow is thoroughly absorbing. This is how an author at the top of her game crafts a convoluted story with such resonating characters. Related from several POVs, each piece fuels the next in a dramatic dance.

Jean

▪ I’m not fooled. She doesn’t care about me. She just wants the story. (50)

▪ It wasn’t meant to be a problem. It’s just that having a baby was all I wanted to do in my life. (116)

▪ It was all very clever—they got some police officer to pretend to be a young woman on the Internet and chat him up. (156)

▪ They must see this is all her fault. That’s what Glen and I think. She let her baby out of her sight. (172)

▪ Wonderful wife. This is my role now. The wonderful wife who stood by her husband. (175)

▪ Dawn suddenly wheeled on Jean. “What has he done with my baby, Mrs. Taylor? What has your husband done with her?” (214)

Sparkes

▪ “You are obsessed with this case, Bob,” Eileen had said the other night. (127)

▪ If Jean loved children so much, why would she stay with a man who looks at child abuse on the computer? he thought. (129)

▪ The next day, he was named and shamed along with his bosses in the papers as one of the “top cops” who had “wrecked” the Bella case. (187)

▪ “You need some time off, Bob,” Chief Superintendent Parker told him firmly at their formal interview the following day. (194)

▪ “Did he hear me talk about Bella? Is that how he found her?” (244)

Best line: She was a sturdy young woman with a degree and a career path apparently tattooed on the inside of her eyelids. (191)

Rachel Hawkins. The Storm. USA: St. Martin’s Press, 2025.

St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama: a magnet for budget summer crowds and deadly hurricanes on the Gulf of Mexico. Geneva is the third generation of the Corliss family to own the Rosalie Inn, a faded hotel she runs with the help of her friend Edie. A booking for a month from writer August Fletcher saves Geneva temporarily from financial worries. He’s preparing to write the memoir of Gloria (“Lo”) Bailey, the centre of a huge scandal around St. Medard’s Bay forty years ago. The still-beautiful Lo accompanies him, curious about her old hometown. The worst hurricanes here claimed many lives over the years, including Lo’s father, and it was in 1984’s Hurricane Marie that Landon Fitzroy died, son of Alabama’s then Governor. Gloria Bailey was accused of killing him. Her trial fell apart when the prosecution failed to provide proof—but public opinion trashed her.

Geneva is a true crime fan, so she’s as intrigued with the story as Fletcher is—reading all the old newspaper clippings her mother saved. Mom Ellen had been good friends at school with Lo, but oddly had never mentioned that to her daughter. Others are equally interested to know the truth about Landon’s death. Even though local people have long memories of the shameless slut who destroyed the powerful Fitzroy dynasty, Lo is used to ignoring them; Geneva warms to Lo’s engaging personality. However, with past grievances surfacing, you might guess another major storm is brewing, and not just in the weather. Hurricane Lizzie is on its way.

Author Hawkins integrates the voices of Lo’s contemporaries with those of the current Rosalie Inn residents, leading the pre-storm tension. Lo herself is a larger-than-life character, much like the surrounding climate; true crime(s) revealed in lightning strikes.

Voices

▪ Honestly, I sometimes wish it had just been sex between us. That would’ve been a lot easier, a lot simpler. (38)

▪ “Alison Fitzroy is my cousin, slut,” he says, the word somehow sounding worse in that honeyed old-money voice. (74)

▪ “I know it sounds silly, but I’m kind of hoping the book is this big ol’ hit and then we get people wanting to stay at the inn because of it.” (89)

▪ I don’t know how long Mr. Fitzroy stood there, silent as the statue they built for him a few years ago, the one that makes him look like a fuckin’ Star Wars villain. (101)

▪ It was pitch-black, and someone yelled about a flashlight, maybe Ellen, but I couldn’t be sure. Everything that came after that is still a nightmarish blur. (129)

▪ “Her, and that guy, August. Writing this book. Dragging up the past. The fact that it’s been forty years, but it’s still like she’ll die if she’s not the center of attention.” (138)

▪ “She’s fun, and sassy and sweet, and she’s everyone’s best friend. Until she’s not.” (138)

▪ “That’s the book she thinks we’re writing, yeah,” he says finally, and I see him pull the box a little tighter. “But I don’t know if that’s the book I’m writing anymore.” (172)

Novels No. 112

 

Reese Witherspoon & Harlan Coben. Gone Before Goodbye. Large Print. USA: Grand Central Publishing, 2025.

Humanitarian surgeon Dr Marc Adams is swarmed by a mob of armed, manic killers in a remote African refugee camp. Suddenly we are a year later with his wife, Dr Maggie McCabe, who worked with Marc in war-torn areas of the world. Their friend, Dr Trace Packer, was a partner in the charity they formed, called WorldCures Alliance where they were making radical new transplant developments. Trace disappeared after Marc’s savage death and Maggie desperately wants to find him. But her medical licence is suspended, the charity is disgraced, and she’s persona non grata among her colleagues—it’s not at all clear why, or what had happened. She’s now at the point of poverty with sister Sharon, a polymath scientific genius. Out of the blue, her former mentor Dr Evan Barlow, offers Maggie a highly confidential “concierge surgery” job that more than pays off her debts.

With Maggie being flown in style to the client in Russia, events or characters verge on farce. Oleg Ragoravich lives in remote palatial splendour, a true oligarch. Maggie’s job: some facial changes for him, and breast enhancement for his young girlfriend Nadia—who secretly speaks English but refuses to divulge personal info. What is Nadia hiding? Was Oleg involved in the collapse of WorldCures? After the surgery, Maggie needs rescuing, finding allies in her search for Trace—Marc’s outlandish biker father Porkchop, and Sharon’s ultra-cool AI app. The authors pile on many tangents in a twisting mix of opulent lifestyle, financial fraud, medical spies, organ harvesting, scientific experiments, and eternal youth-seekers. Deeper issues and serious medical ethics are addressed.

In this writers’ collaboration (why are these celebrity-partnerships becoming popular?), a few areas tend to zoom right over-the-top credibility-wise. Background exposition is minimal, the characters are lively for the most part, and surgical discussions are fascinating. A lot to unpack here.

Insights?

▪ It would be easy to say they—she, Marc, Trace—created WorldCures Alliance for purely altruistic reasons. That had been a good story—three combat doctors who saw a need and eschewed the comforts of home to save the needy and revolutionize health care, but that felt too much like spin to Maggie. (56)

▪ “You’ve always been a risk-taker, Maggie. It’s what drew you to the military. It’s what drew you to provide care in some of the most dangerous places on the planet.” (75-6)

▪ “Five million put into your account at Merrill Lynch right now. The other five million when you’re done.” (83)

▪ “When well done, the humanoid AI can replicate the dead person’s speech patterns, personality, temperament, mannerisms, intelligence, tics, gestures—everything that made the deceased unique.” (129)

▪ “All of you who live in comfort can afford your ethics and morals. You want to judge me by them. How, you wonder, could I sell my own kidney?” (163)

▪ Using the momentum from the fall and roll, she jumps behind the firewood just as the next shot rings out. When you watch someone fire a handgun on television, it seems like a pretty accurate weapon. It is not. (215-6)

▪ Everyone has been playing head games with her. She knows that now. None of this is accidental or coincidental. (242)

▪ “Do you see how it looks?” Nadia continues. “You leave WorldCures—and then on his very last humanitarian mission, someone sells out your husband.” (324)

Jesse Q. Sutanto. You Will Never Be Me. USA: Berkley/ Penguin/Random House, 2024.

What have I done? Entered Gen Z land? From way back on my waiting list, this book popped up. Tempted to pass because of the initially glib tone, I braved it out. First was popular beauty and fashion influencer Meredith (Mer), who’d had a fight with her bestie, “mom” influencer Aspen. These influencers, it’s all about followers and sponsors, you know. Numbers. They dispense their advice for self-improvement and the perfect home on Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook – all over the internet. Cool photos are a must. Not to say that the women don’t work hard at their chosen careers. It’s not easy balancing motherhood and family with the demands of ever-fresh postings that feature coping skills and inspiration for their fans. Like, you too can have the ideal home, cutely dressed kids, mouth-watering recipes, just follow me, and use this product for the whitest laundry. Achieving such perfection means their anxiety levels are often through the roof.

Aspen’s income from this enterprise far exceeds husband Ben’s (trouble coming there, naturally). In a milieu where authenticity is the highest virtue, how genuine are her posts? Does she never spill the veggie smoothie, burn the chicken, have a screaming child? Do I care? Snooze. Meredith had mentored her friend from day one until Aspen’s ratings soared above everyone else’s; using her family and home as props clearly paid off. Hoping to catch up, Meredith switched to the same domestic theme, but her jealousy was so predominant, it lead to secretly sabotaging Aspen’s popularity and numbers.

Because I’m still w-a-i-t-i-n-g for my next TPL arrival, I slug on through the scheming-manipulating-superficial-artificial girlishness, hoping for a dramatic diversion. And it does happen—whether believable or not. There’s a demographic out there that will love this novel.

Meredith

▪ Damn it, one of this year’s resolutions was to stop being so mean, and it’s not even February yet. (8)

▪ You’re sitting there thinking I’m this horrible jealous bitch who can’t handle her best friend’s success, and that’s not at all the case. (37)

▪ “Wait, what?” Tanya says. “So you guys used to be besties, then she got big and dumped you?” (105)

▪ “But then one day I just ... snapped. I exploded on her. I told her she was the fakest friend I’ve ever had.” (148)

Aspen

▪ But nowadays, it feels like it’s the entire household versus me, and I don’t understand how it got to be like this when I’m the one keeping everything afloat. (49)

▪ He of all people knows how much space Mer takes up in my life—how much it ripped me apart when we had that fight. (53)

▪ “Um, well, a lot of them are saying you’re sort of, you know, a little bit fake?” Then she quickly adds, “I disagree, obviously, but uh.” (88)

▪ “I’m a momfluencer, and one of the many reasons I love what I do is because it connects me to other moms. We help one another feel less alone.” (140)

Novels No. 111

 

Louise Penny. The Black Wolf. USA: Minotaur Books, 2025.

Three Pines had worn kind of thin for me some time ago, so the right vibe wasn’t there and I set aside The Grey Wolf after a chapter or so. But curiosity about how The Black Wolf was said to foreshadow some real life developments (even though written before Trump’s second coming) spurred me on—without fully realizing that The Black Wolf is a continuation, a sequel if you will, of Grey. The author provides just enough here for grasping the gist of the preceding plot and players.

Armand Gamache is still head of homicide in the Québec Sûreté; he’s temporarily deafened by an explosion during a terrorist attack that nearly poisoned thousands in Montreal. The former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, Marcus Lauzon, was convicted and imprisoned as the mastermind (the Black Wolf, as Gamache deemed the perpetrator). Lauzon consistently denies it and Gamache’s instinct says he’s not the Black Wolf; finally the prisoner gives him a clue to the next secretly planned attack. For all his vaunted intelligence, it takes Gamache over two hundred pages to recognize the devious plot—a plot the reader no doubt scoped much sooner. Then the action becomes breathless and non-stop. Penny is at her intricate storytelling best with puzzles galore.

The novel is populated with treacherous politicians, police of all ranks, Montreal’s mafia boss, a young biologist, a daring journalist, laundered money, American military brass, internet conspiracy theories, so many names, and – of course – the “usual suspects” of Three Pines village. It’s a complex zigzag race to identify and stop the impending disaster, with Gamache trusting very few people. Author Penny provides all the well-researched details that make the complicated scenarios so realistic. My only fret is the frequent tangents into a character’s memory lane to reveal how human he/she really is. Often inserted at a moment of dramatic decision-making, to me they unnecessarily interrupt the narrative flow. But Penny’s dexterity at such “re-winding” is an intrinsic part of her style.

For full impact, I’d really recommend reading The Grey Wolf first!

Intel

▪ Which meant there were others still out there. Those who had avoided arrest. And to do that, their influence must extend to the highest levels of government, the judiciary, industry. Organized crime. (17)

▪ If a trained Sûreté agent could believe the lies, believe the poisoning plot never happened, then how many others had been manipulated too? (48)

▪ She looked puzzled. “Now why would the mafia want Caron’s assistant dead?” (118)

▪ “By the way, the same site also claimed Canada was salting the clouds so that acid rain would melt American cities.” (182)

▪ “Natural resources are the new currency. Power is measured in liters now. Not missiles. Not GDP.” (222)

▪ No longer able to hold it in, Nichol blurted out, “Tardiff’s going to have Lauzon killed.” (163)

▪ Shots had been fired in the White House. (247)

▪ Jean-Guy felt pressure on his head. A boot was crushing his cheekbone against the cave floor. (297)

Eddy Boudel Tan. The Tiger and the Cosmonaut. Canada: Viking, 2025.

Sibling issues. Immigrant expectations. Racist taunts. Narrated from the perspective of Casper Han, he and sister Nadia and older brother Ricky gather at the old family home in a small wooded BC backwater called Wilhelm. It’s ten years or more since they’d all left home. Casper’s current love Anthony has willingly accompanied him. Mom had called to report their father Philip had gone missing overnight. They contact local policeman Ivan Bauer – who happened to be Casper’s secret boyfriend in high school – and search parties are organized. Philip is found later, wandering the nearby deep forest, agitated and not making sense; signs of dementia seem obvious. Undercurrents suggest that something dreadful happened to Casper’s twin Sam, when they were nine years old.

The novel’s title refers to the costumes the two young boys wore when Sam disappeared. It was during whistler’s night festival, a community event unique to Wilhelm, latterly downplaying its connotations of a legendary scary man (the whistler) who lived in the dark forest. That night affected each member of the Han family somewhat differently, but guilt weighs on all of them. Philip seems haunted by that fateful night, so before his mind drifts away forever, Casper determines to give him peace by uncovering what really took place then. To do so, he must overcome his resentment towards Ivan and his father Paul, the former police chief. And find the whistler.

Much more than just a mystery, the novel delves deeply into the immigrant psyche, its generational effect, conflicting emotions within the family unit. Unable to articulate feelings even to those closest to him, Casper comes to terms with his need to express grief and guilt. A scandal and a tragedy—tenderly told by a compassionate author.

Bits

▪ “It’s not healthy to bottle things up,” he’d often say, and I’d struggle to explain how I’m too afraid to let everything spill. Because every spill leaves a stain that can’t just be wiped clean. (22-3)

▪ I was supposed to be the promising one. I was bright and polite and obedient. (19)

▪ “Sam.” The name escapes my lips and hangs in the air. “This is about Sam. The fireworks, the woods, the scissors. Something’s going on with Dad’s brain.”(103)

▪ We stare at the floor from our respective corners, a triangle of siblings realizing that we now have what we’ve been avoiding for years: a common problem. (104)

▪ That man accused me of corrupting his son. That man took something precious that Ivan and I shared, and he perverted it into something shameful. (135)

▪ There were cameras in a few of the rooms, including ours, and some of the videos leaked online. To this day, nobody knows who planted the cameras or posted the videos. (160)

▪ “Aren’t you tired, Casper? Of being humiliated? You think any of us had a choice but to leave town, this place that’s supposed to be home?” (204)

▪ “Wouldn’t you be angry? If your family was pushed aside and pulled apart, your neighbours beaten, and nobody cared? Wouldn’t you want to break something, or hurt someone?” (206)

Novels No. 110

 

K.J. Whittle. Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests. USA: Sourcebooks, 2025.

In-house grab, and what a pleasure to discover a fresh plot concept. Seven strangers converge at a pop-up restaurant for a dinner party, each believing the invitation is related to public relations in their jobs or other activities. No host or explanation is offered; the point seems to be a card slipped beneath their dessert plates: stating at which age they will die. Only two are opened at the table, causing puzzlement or upset. Middle-aged Vivienne, longtime editor at a failing magazine. Shabby and lonely Tristan, math and computer whiz. Handsome banker Matthew, charm personified. Melvin, married Black policeman. Gorgeous young Stella, sparkling fashion influencer. Dr Gordon, humourless nutritionist. Janet, lingerie business manager and perpetual flirt. Janet’s card said she will die at age forty-four, her age right now. Dr Gordon’s said age fifty-three; he’s fifty now.

Having left the dinner venue in various stages of agitation or scorn, they never expected to meet again. Until Melvin the cop emails that Stella died by falling under a subway train. By comparing notes of after-dinner conversations, they learn her card had said age twenty-three – right on. And so it begins, as two more die at the prophesied age, by accident or suicide. The remaining group has theories; Dr Gordon thinks it’s an experiment by a secret scientific society. Convinced that an unknown person is directing a macabre plot to kill them all, Vivienne goes full investigative-journalist; her own card disappeared before she could read it. Funerals and memorial services become their contact points, witnessing how the strange dinner party has affected each of the dwindling group.

Being honest in their relationships would have saved everyone so much trouble. The Spoiler Law forbids me to further enlighten. Even if you recognize a certain underlying basis as you proceed, or make tentative connections, this is a creative and challenging and highly enjoyable novel.

Getting Acquainted

▪ Already seated is the Botoxed lingerie boss with huge knockers, the old Welsh police officer who clearly loves a drink or ten, the too-skinny YouTuber frowning at her phone, and the dull TV doctor desperately waiting to be recognized. (9)

▪ “I’ve got a YouTube channel with nearly half a million subscribers.” (18)

▪ “I prefer takeaway at home with friends,” Tristan replies, which is only a half lie. He has takeaway most Friday and Saturday nights, but never with friends. (26)

▪ As well as handsome Matthew and sex-obsessed Janet, Vivienne is a lady of around his age and seems to have elected herself the headmistress of the group, looking offended at every turn. (44)

▪ Matthew attempted his cat-that-got-the-cream grin but feared it was more like hyena-with-a-hernia grimace. (68)

▪ “Well I, for one, won’t be going down without a fight,” says Gordon. (124)

▪ Melvin thinks of the many glimpses of barely contained anger he’s seen from Tristan, the clenched fists and jaw, the scathing comments and withering looks, but he doesn’t want to encourage another of Vivienne’s wacky theories. (188-9)

Shari Lapena. She Didn’t See It Coming. Canada: Doubleday Canada, 2025.

An ordinary day, an ordinary family, but mummy doesn’t show up to fetch daughter Clara from daycare. Husband Sam finds her car, her purse, her phone, at home in their condo. Dread. Bryden Frost vanished, becoming the object of a missing person search—probably an abducted person. Family and friends are stunned, bewildered, stymied, so uncharacteristic of Bryden. Detectives Jayne Salter and Tom Kilgour quickly interview neighbours, arranging a thorough search of common areas in the entire high-rise building. Lapena sets us up with detail after detail of the police protocol to heighten the tension. No one has seen Bryden all day, nor did cameras catch her leaving the site. The next day a K-9 tracking dog solves the mystery, finding her hidden body.

Sam is devastated, having panic attacks. His main support comes from sister-in-law Lizzie, from Bryden’s parents who arrive from Florida, her best friend Paige, and their neighbour Angela. But still, the spouse is always the first suspect, and Sam is hiding secrets. So is Paige. So is the man whose car Bryden had damaged a few weeks earlier. Lizzie’s big secret is her obsession with online true crime fans—maybe they can solve her sister’s murder instead of the slow-moving police. At that point the drama intensifies, while family members agonize—did Sam kill his wife or not?—and a sociopathic couple add a new dimension.

Motivations surface as frightened people try to deflect police attention to anyone but themselves. Lapena at her mind-twisting best.

Pointed Bits

▪ Lizzie says, “There was nothing, and Bryden tells me everything. We’re very close, you know that.” (45)

▪ She’s probably a good detective, but he doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like her. (53)

▪ What could be worse for a man than to lose his wife and the mother of his child? And he loves her, they all know that. (72)

▪ There’s a charged silence as cadaver dog registers with everyone. Sam’s face blanches and Bryden’s parents look stricken. (77)

▪ “And I don’t have an alibi. They really grilled me about that. Detective Salter hates me, I can tell.” (106)

▪ Alice is suddenly very angry, at the detectives and at her husband. But mostly at her husband. What has he done? What has he been up to, and not telling her about? (115)

▪ He adds, “It was an exceptionally clean murder.” (139)

▪ If only she’d been stronger and stood up to him. Told him she wasn’t going to take any of his shit. (175)

▪ Lizzie has never felt so important, so noticed, even though she is anonymous. She glows inside. (217)

** It may be time for another wee vent on why novelists seem to outdo each other in the odd selection of names for female characters. So many sound masculine. Why? This year alone I’ve come across Bryden, Aubrey, Aislin (Ash), Madison, and Whitney. Then there’s Savanah (one “n”) and Cheyenne. Really, are parents doing that?

Novels No. 109

 

Nicci French. The Last Days of Kira Mullan. UK: Simon & Schuster/William Morrow Large Print, 2025.

Nancy North’s worst nightmare is about to unfold. With the loving care and attention of her partner Felix, she recovered from a hospitalized breakdown – a psychotic break – due to the demands and stress of running her own boutique restaurant. Moving to an old house of four apartments, they meet fellow tenants: Harry and Olga across from them on the second floor, and Barney and Seamus in the basement. They don’t meet Kira from the main floor because she’s dead, having hung herself. Nancy realizes she’d literally bumped into Kira the day before, noting the girl’s rather fearful agitation. Hearing a few more bits of information convinces Nancy that this was no suicide, but no one takes her seriously—not with her history.

The neighbours, including Michelle and Dylan in the duplex next door, mercilessly provoke Nancy about her murder theory until she loses it again—she’s “sectioned” into a drab, cruel psychiatric facility where medication is forced on her. Privately she can’t forgive Felix for agreeing to it, and Michelle for lying to police; it feels like a conspiracy to shut her up. She’s so stubborn about not being mentally ill that it takes far too long until she understands she must play the game to earn a discharge. Only one person, DI Maud O’Connor, sees the truth in Nancy’s statements; she begins a painstaking construction of Kira’s last hours despite lies and obstructions from almost everyone. Maud is finding her professional purpose, supported by a tender new relationship. Nancy regains control of her own life.

Any one of them – or someone else – could be the killer. Tension marches along like a relentless ticking time bomb. Beautifully paced, and very unpredictable—master authors at work.

Overheard

▪ “I can’t remember her exact words, but she said something bad was happening to her, and she was going to do something about it.” Nancy concentrated so much that it hurt, trying to remember. (69-70)

▪ “Did you actually see her, or was she part of your episode? That’s why you didn’t tell me. Because you didn’t know if it was real or not.” (79)

▪ “She’s a fucking fantasist and this is my case, O’Connor,” he said. “You do your job, if you can, and I’ll do mine.” (96)

▪ Nancy suddenly noticed something about Michelle’s expression. “Has Felix been talking about me?” (101)

▪ “If you think that people are going to stand by and let you do harm to those who are suffering and grieving, then you may need to learn a lesson.” He paused and looked down at her. (144)

▪ “I’m not angry, but if you keep telling me I am, then I probably will be before long.” (331)

▪ “Do you know how much you’ve hurt me, Nancy? Do you have any idea of what I’ve done for you, what I’ve given up?” (419)

▪ “No,” Maud said sharply. “She wasn’t deluded. Kira Mullan was murdered. You tried to keep Nancy quiet.” (489)

Ashley Elston. Anatomy of an Alibi. USA: Random House Large Print, 2026.

Another unpredictable, tangled rat’s nest! Murder is on someone’s agenda and those people with potential motives are expecting police questions. The man found dead in his home office is Benjamin Bayliss, high-profile criminal defence lawyer. Wife Camille returns home Sunday morning after an overnight away, to discover his body; yesterday she was busy playing out a wholly different scenario of her own. Hank Landry, partner in the two-man law firm, is still Ben’s executor even though Ben had initiated dissolution of the partnership. No doubt police will also look at any clients or associates who did jail time or carried a grudge. Will anyone look at Aubrey, the bartender persuaded to impersonate Camille on Saturday? And how did Ben know two of Aubrey’s dodgy house-mates, men she co-opted to help her secretly alter Camille’s plan? We visit and re-visit the Saturday of the murder to see how alibis will hold up.

Camille simply wanted to free herself from a miserable marriage, by finding evidence on Ben that will nullify the rigid pre-nuptial agreement she signed. It was an extremely busy Saturday for Camille and Aubrey as their mutual plan gets disrupted, requiring spontaneous amending to their private plans. Camille’s overbearing father, Randall Everett, has strings to pull; he and his son Silas control nearly everything in town, including the police chief. Paul Granger, railroaded into Angola prison for a crime he didn’t commit, has dangerous information to share. Sneaky private investigators, spyware, an impenetrable safe, and Detective Sullivan are just some of the obstacles the two women face to solidify their alibis at the time of Ben’s death.

This one may well have you going in circles. Connections among the characters keep multiplying at a desperate pace. Ben himself pursued mysterious activities the night he died. His death has roots in a fatal car accident ten years ago. Timelines are everything. Enjoy!

Pieces

▪ Our plan was to create a clear and unwavering digital trail that started at noon and ended just before midnight. Every move planned out in advance. (14, Aubrey)

▪ Do I trust that if Camille is able to find proof of Ben’s wrongdoing that she’ll share it? No, I don’t.(78, Aubrey)

▪ I have no idea what he would do if he discovered me up here. Found out I had hidden cameras around our home to spy on him. (85, Camille)

▪ If Randall Everett decides he wants everyone to believe I killed Ben, that’s exactly what will happen. (103, Hank)

▪ Deacon squeezes my foot through the comforter. “Hey. We’re going to figure this out. Let’s give Vic a chance to get us some more info and we’ll make a plan.” (143, Aubrey)

▪ “I’m guessing it was a cop who came to see you?” I’m pushing Paul to see if he’ll trust me with Foster’s name. (178, Aubrey)

▪ It’s hard not to feel like I’ve been set up in some way. That Aubrey knew more about what was happening today than she was willing to tell me and I’m some pawn in her game. (184-5, Camille)

▪ Silas stumbles his way out of my room while Margaret sinks back down on the floor. “Don’t tell Mr. Everett I’m here. That I was with him.” (199, Ben)

Novels No. 108

 

T. Kira Madden. Whidbey. USA: Mariner Books, 2026.

Birdie Chang is on her way to Whidbey Island, off-grid for the summer, to hide from negative media scrutiny and from released convict Calvin Boyer who may try to hurt her again. On the ferry, inexplicably, she confides this to a stranger, Rich Anani, who (also inexplicably) offers to kill the man for her. Several victims’ testimonies – including her friend Francine’s – convicted Boyer as a pedophile, but Birdie’s was dismissed in court as a ten-year-old’s fabrication. Thus, what really happened to Birdie is unclear; she’s afraid of Boyer but her feelings seem conflicted. Now Linzie King, another victim, has published a tell-all book full of lies, purloining some of Birdie’s experience. Birdie’s partner Trace forbids her to read the book, knowing how upsetting it will be. Then Calvin is killed by a hit-and-run driver, mourned only by his deluded but loyal mother Mary-Beth; her sister Sylvia knows better.

Birdie learns news of the death when she secretly attends one of Linzie’s nearby book signings (of course she’s been reading the book) but does not get to confront her. When she hears the word murder being whispered, she thinks Rich made good his offer. But she also knows, if it’s true, that she herself would be a suspect. She has threatening emails from Calvin but where are the tapes he made? Later in life Linzie participates in a television dating show where unknowingly she’s set up for public shaming by the duplicitous producers. Hence she’s a traumatic wreck, becoming dependent on Yale, the true author of her book. Personal trauma becomes like an industry. Whidbey’s author lifts layer after layer off these dysfunctional people.

Madden’s style is inimitable and immediately engaging, exposing how predators exploit the pain of needy or damaged people. Birdie is an enigma much of the time, the only real mystery. Is it odd that near the end the author begins to directly address the reader? She might mess with your head if you don’t keep your wits finely tuned. Sheer genius?

Hints

▪ Trace couldn’t join me on Whidbey—the aloneness was kind of the point. The Walden experience. The great quiet. The anonymity. (24)

▪ Syl thought of them as low-lifers, Mary Beth knew, embarrassed of her sister working the gas pumps, her nephew on the you-know-what registry, unless she was swooping in to help them. (36)

▪ Calvin Boyer made me feel special. Before we get to the villain of him, you should know he listened to me. He was kind to me, an online companion, and the son of our school bus driver—there was no reason not to trust him. (Linzie’s book, 56)

▪ That’s how this death pain felt, a rubber band stretched beneath the bones of Mary-Beth’s feet, then secured at the top of her skull where headaches came on. (83)

▪ If what I did was really that bad why did you come to my house after Francine did? Francine told you what would happen. That I liked you both. (From one of Cal’s letters, 157)

▪ “They CONNED you. They chose your narrative, and you followed like a duckling. This is Manipulation Tactics, 101.” (Yale, 218)

▪ Ms Boyer, Odette said. Linzie’s book’s an abomination, we both know this. And she’s directly profiting off the death of your son. (225)

Lauren Ling Brown. Society of Lies. USA: Bantam Books, 2024.

It’s Princeton University world, as experienced by two young women. The private eating clubs were new to me, where the majority of upperclassmen eat, party, and network. Invitations and initiations are involved. Maya attended Princeton ten years ago on scholarship; now her beloved sister Naomi is graduating. Both are/were members of Sterling House but also of its exclusive secret society, Greystone—quite a privilege for girls of humble origins and mixed parentage in a milieu where racism is alive and well. But Naomi is found dead – drowned in the lake – during a celebratory evening. Maya is stunned; she can’t accept it as an accident. Did anyone want to harm her sister? She wants the truth, no matter how painful, and that means talking to people close to Naomi. People like her ex-boyfriend Liam, and Professor Matthew DuPont, an influential force in Greystone.

I’m struggling for brief but salient words on a complex novel of many threads and nuances. What follow are parallel tracks—Naomi’s months before she died and the back story of Maya’s own Princeton days. Similar paths are evident in how they made friends, being tapped for an elite club, and falling in love. Maya-past and Maya-present are distinct in what she knew or learned at different times. Disturbingly, Naomi’s death reminds Maya of her friend Lila’s fatal accident years ago. Having failed to protect her sister, she’s determined to investigate her suspicions that Greystone’s smug facade hides something dangerous. Members are for life, powerful enough to have any indiscretions erased; bribery or blackmail work well, as Maya becomes a victim herself. She keeps it all to herself, not telling future husband Nathan, nor her friends who had championed her Greystone entry.

A challenging read, for sure. The weaving together of two chilling stories doubles the tension, each sister in turn trying to expose corruption and crimes with different methods – and outcomes. Although the societies are fictional, this collaborative world emits the sour taste of reality.

Maya

▪ Lila’s warning surfaced in my thoughts again. A whisper, louder this time: Get out while you can. GET OUT! (107)

▪ This man had a life I’d never dreamed possible for someone like me. And yet he too had started with nothing ... Maybe being close to Professor DuPont was the way to a better life for Naomi. (114)

▪ “They let you in because right now it’s a good look to have one light-skinned Black girl around.” (168)

▪ “A lot of people here are extremely connected. Sons and daughters of some of the most powerful people in the world. Sometimes our alumni need things, and we find ways to help them.” (185)

▪ Did she realize how much was at stake for all of us? For me? If something happened to Greystone, that would mean the end of my lifeline to my sister. (199)

Naomi

▪ Between our age difference and our parents passing when we were so young, Maya acts more like a parent than a sister most of the time. (45)

▪ I haven’t told Liam about Amy’s research. I trust him, but he’s a member of Greystone, and close with DuPont too. (146)

▪ “She found emails from the dean of admissions—Greystone was straight-up paying him to let their alums’ kids into the school ... Greystone covered up their part, they were never named in the scandal, just let the dean take the fall for it.” (147)

▪ I’ve been helping Amy all week, reading articles, talking to alumni under the pretense of “informational interviews,” and now my head hurts. (153)

▪ What does he mean, me of all people? How much does he know about the investigation? Does he know Amy’s behind it? (195)

Novels No. 107

 

Chris Bridges. Sick to Death. UK: Avon/HarperCollins, 2025.

Emma has a neurological condition that resonates in those of us with fibromyalgia. Hers exhibits even stronger, unpredictable physical symptoms like the numbness that can strike one side of her body—she falls quite often. Crammed into a council household with her mother Ann, her daughter Ava, despised stepfather Peter, and stepsister Becky, Emma has no spot to call her own, especially for all the fatigue she suffers. Peter’s contempt for Emma and her disability is loud and clear on a daily basis; she fantasizes killing him. By chance, she meets medical intern Adam who lives not far away on a wealthy street. Their friendship grows into love, not without questions and doubts on Emma’s part. Adam is divorcing his entitled, patronizing wife Celeste, who is making it as complicated as possible.

Both the new lovers yearn for liberation from their individual oppressors. You can see it coming: each offers to do away with the other’s nemesis. Perfect alibis will be set up. Ultimately they decide that Emma getting rid of Celeste will solve their problem—ensuring a rich inheritance for Adam and the rosy future they plan together. Of course, the best-laid plans ... and all that. The author expertly pulls twists from one manipulator to another. More than one plan, more than one murder, is hatching. Adam and Emma are not the only players desperate to remedy abusive situations. Yet motivations may differ.

In this context, women develop a strong sense of justification for committing murder—women who’ve been systemically disparaged, used, and degraded. Taking control of their lives seems worth any consequence. Perfectly paced, with great empathy for “invisible illness.”

Peeks

▪ We go through the usual ritual and I tell him that my left arm and leg don’t work properly, that I fall, faint even, sometimes. About the numb patches that plague parts of my body. (7)

▪ “Becky was a child actor. In a soap opera. She was in it from the age of thirteen.” (23)

▪ It’s endearing how this handsome and confident man has such boyish traits. (38)

▪ “You’re nothing here. You don’t even look after your own child. We have to do that for you too.” (47)

▪ We’re slowly learning about each other’s desperation. Appreciating how caged we both are. (63)

▪ I don’t want people to bestow sympathy. I want my independence, to be seen as capable and not a charity case. Conversely, I want them to know that they have to reduce their expectations. (127)

▪ “I’ve been thinking of some exercises you could do to make your arm stronger. And I could show you where to aim the knife to avoid hitting her ribs.” (149)

▪ I lull myself to sleep planning how me and Adam will live once the deed is done. The opulence and wealth that will cushion us from the dirt of reality. (200)

Tracy Clark. Echo. USA: Thomas & Mercer, 2024.

I’ve met Detective Harriet Foster before, Chicago cop living alone, dedicated to the job, fiercely guarding her private life. Her previous partner Det. Glynnis Thompson apparently killed herself with a gunshot to the head; an anonymous caller to Harriet insists that “G” had been a dirty cop and he will expose the evidence. Harriet doesn’t buy it, determined to prove otherwise despite warnings from her boss and Internal Affairs to drop it. Meanwhile a dead student, Brice Collier, is found outside the mansion where he lives, adjacent to a college campus heavily endowed by the Collier family. Alcohol poisoning killed him—that and other evidence shows similarities to Michael Paget’s death thirty years ago. Interviews are necessary with the many young people who had partied in his house that night. More interesting is Harri’s personal mission to find the truth about Glynnis. While her now-partner Vera Li hopes Harri will learn to stop burying her feelings, Harri’s mother provides a connection from the family’s own past.

I didn’t mention the novel’s melodramatic introduction where Justice-as-allegory targets Sebastian Collier through his son and heir Brice—the stilted device seems too artificial to take seriously in this genre. “Justice” doesn’t hold up at all; the real theme is vengeance for sins of the fathers. Everyone wants payback in this story, even revenge on the avengers. It’s hard to keep an interest in the slow-moving, non-compelling Paget-Collier revenge scenario; Harri’s overthinking and withheld feelings slow any attempt at suspense in her Glynnis investigation. Eventually my lack of curiosity and care about the characters took hold: exposition reveals answers to any questions, most actions take place offstage, and too many voices are inserted. Only the banter dialogue between the partners kept me plodding.

Collier death

▪ “We came about one body,” Vera said, “and you’ve given us two?” (77)

▪ “They have to suffer slowly, like they did. They died a little bit more every day, and you know it.” (132)

▪ “A shot at a six-figure job in the corporate world? Sebastian Collier recommending you for it? Who’s not going to go for the hookup if you can get it, right?” (149)

▪ With the death of his son, his progeny, what Sebastian Collier wanted was payback, and Lange had been charged with making the transaction. (195)

▪ “They might want to take another swipe. Anything to get Collier’s attention and force him back so they can get at him.” (247)

Glynnis death

▪ Dead and gone. Out of sight, out of mind. Cop suicides made the department look bad, and the attention was unwanted at the top. (13)

▪ “I am owed, Detective Harriet Foster. I was wronged. And you have a debt to pay.” (102)

▪ “The fact that you think you can do it alone is why I won’t let you do it alone.” (107)

▪ “If I can prove it, I’ll make him pay.” She rose. “Don’t worry.” (129)

▪ Someone always knew a cop who worked with a cop they knew. (136)

▪ She’d heard his voice. He had sounded solid, locked in, vengeful, not crazy. (180)