Novels No. 35 (LL353)

 

Adele Parks. Two Dead Wives. Ebook download from TPL. UK: Mira Books, 2023.

Adele Parks knows how to grab you from the first page. DC Clements and Constable Tanner are investigating missing person Kylie Gillingham; she is known as Leigh to her husband Mark Fletcher. But she is known as Kai to her husband Daan Janssen. Huh? Both men are astonished when the duplicity is revealed, swearing ignorance about her disappearance, although the cops have evidence that the woman was held captive in a vacant suite in Janssen's building, whose primary residence is the Netherlands. Almost everyone believes she's dead and Janssen is charged with murder although no body is found. Leigh's good friend Fiona is equally devastated over Leigh's massive deception. Pandemic lockdown is upon them, whereupon Fiona moves into Mark's household to look after his two boys, Oli and Seb. And yet, privately, Fiona angrily carries the guilt that she killed Leigh. What appears to have been a chilling abduction preceding the disappearance/murder has everyone involved at emotional crisis peak.

The suspense of the non-linear introduction—startling bits come at us piece by piece, not necessarily chronologically—digresses into the slow, quiet life of Stacie Jones, recovering cancer patient. Cared for by her father at his seaside house, Stacie is anguished by her total loss of memory pre-surgery. How she will work into the story is interspersed with Daan's indignation over his bail conditions, and Mark alternately grateful or resentful that Fiona runs his home as efficiently as possible under the circumstances. The two boys are grieving, confused; they run away. Daan is convinced that Fiona is behind the entire plan of abduction and death. Stacie wants access to her "socials" that could tell her much about her past, but dad is so ultra protective, he keeps her isolated. The suspense is perfectly intense to that point, but once the major question is answered for us, the forward impetus slows, loses my attention.

Author Parks has the gift of making some unlikely scenarios credible, but there's a lot to buy into here. I enjoyed the first two-thirds of the book immensely.

Cops

▪ " ... either husband could have discovered the infidelity, then, furious, humiliated and ruthless, imprisoned her." (16)

▪ She was bound, beaten, perhaps even poisoned, certainly drugged, most probably starved. (201)

Daan

▪ He is white, privileged, extraordinarily wealthy. People like him are very unpopular right now. (20)

▪ Fiona obviously killed Kai. He is being set up and only she could have done it. He has to prove her guilt in order to prove his own innocence. (223)

Mark

▪ He can't stand this limbo. It's damaging, draining. But Seb seems to cling to hope, even as Mark drowns under a wave of despair. (189)

▪ Hearing Daan Janssen's voice when he was hoping for Oli's or Seb's is especially jarring, disturbing. (450)

Stacie

▪ What would I do without him preserving my identity? I'd literally disappear if he didn't keep reminding me who I am, what I've done, what I dreamed of. (85)

▪ Where is Dad? Why has he left me locked up and alone? (414)

Fiona

▪ She just wanted to punish Kylie, teach her a lesson. Things simply got out of hand, went too far. (346)

▪ Fiona is the one carrying the load here. She is the one left to pick up the pieces. (390)

William Kent Krueger. The River We Remember. Ebook download from TPL's Libby. Atria Books/Simon & Schuster, 2023.

Jimmy Quinn, biggest landowner and biggest bully in Black Earth County, ends up dead in the Alabaster River—with a large hole in his midsection from a shotgun. Much is made of how channel catfish enjoy a dead body. It's a far cry from Sheriff Brody Dern's usual cases of misdemeanour in this rural farming community. As news of the death spreads, we meet many locals in the town of Jewel, none of whom apparently regret the loss. That seems to include Jimmy's invalid wife Marta, son P.J. Jr., and two young daughters. It's 1958 and many of the men are war veterans, eking out a living on family land. There are war widows, too, like Angie Madison who runs the Wagon Wheel Cafe with her mother-in-law Ida.

Brody did something unusual at the riverbank crime scene, or let's say two unusual things, because during his overnight watch at the bloody scene, his brother Tom's wife, Garnet, secretly joined him to make love. Part-time deputy Conrad Graff is the retired former sheriff, puzzled at Brody's reluctance to call it murder; nonetheless, forensics and circumstances point dramatically to neighbouring farmer Noah Bluestone, who is arrested and charged. Both Noah and his Japanese wife Kyoko face racial bigotry on a regular basis, and even with this serious situation, neither will cooperate with the court-appointed defense lawyer, Charlotte Bauer. Charlie ‒ as she prefers ‒ is hard put to prepare a case, pleading him not guilty. But the book is not a courtroom showdown. The small town atmosphere of gossip, old grudges, and new friendships moves the story at its own pace; the magnetic pull of the characters and their issues is irresistible.

The crime builds drama on several fronts while the river continues as a rolling reminder of spirits gone; friendship endures in heroic ways. Award-winning author Krueger gives us a masterpiece of suspense and humanity, a quintessential microcosm of America in a most compelling way.

Bits

▪ Asa was his deputy and his colleague, but Brody didn't think of him as a friend. In truth, Brody had few of those. (59)

▪ "It's not his fault that I love his brother. And he's a wonderful father." (88)

▪ Connie Graff was sixty years old and had always expected to be dead by then. Or at the very least, glued to a rocking chair on the porch of an old folks' home, waiting to be fitted for a coffin. (108)

▪ "Everybody knows who did it. Bluestone, that Indian son of a bitch." (143)

▪ Graff gave him a long look. "You're trying awful hard to see this in only one way." (173)

▪ Brody understood that the life he lived was nothing but a rickety framework of lies. (206)

▪ "It's been a peaceful arrest, Gordy," he said trying to keep his anger under control. (297)

▪ "You can work miracles with a jury, Charlie. I've seen you do it. But I'm afraid you'd have to be God himself to get a fair hearing for Noah Bluestone." (377)

▪ "Do you think if he knew who you really are he could love you?" (551)

▪ In a town where hatred from wars long past and wars more recent still had hooks in many hearts, was anyone safe? (592-3)