Novels No. 99

 

Jessie Garcia. The Business Trip. Large print. USA: Thorndike Press, 2024.

Two women again. Jasmine is flying to Denver to escape abusive boyfriend Glenn; she secretly saved money for a long time, to be able to sneak away in the middle of the night. Stephanie is flying via Denver to a business conference in San Diego; she’s a busy, responsible television news director. Jasmine’s friend Anna wants to hear that she’s safe, wherever she went. Stephanie’s great friend Robert cares for her cat while she’s away. Both travellers are slow to respond to texts, but Stephanie sends Robert photos, post-conference, of an Atlanta condo—belonging to Trent McCarthy where she hooked up with him for a week! Anna finally hears from Jasmine who’s enthralled with a man she met, Trent McCarthy! How creepy is that? Jasmine and Anna’s longtime friend Raven happens to live in Atlanta in petty criminal activities.

Stephanie’s uncharacteristic leave of absence has colleagues Bruce, Nora, Dave, and Lucy puzzled, and even more so when they realize it’s not Stephanie texting them. Robert joins the television station group, all worried about her safety. So many questions. A quick decision has Robert and Lucy flying to Atlanta to see that condo—the only clue they have. But too late. The place is a crime scene, and police say the victims are Stephanie and Jasmine. The narrative then switches to the egotistical, obnoxious McCarthy, news director at Atlanta’s premier TV station; when arrested, he denies any involvement with the women. Changing narrators push the plot forward.

Baffling is the first way to describe this plot, then come Machiavellian and chilling. Yet the endless details of a crime to me felt rather demoralising—and that’s exactly where the suspense lies. I suppose it depends on how much empathy you develop for the main characters.

Peeks

▪ Mom had three kids with three different men, and for some reason she decided early on that I was the bad seed. (17 Jasmine)

▪ Jasmine was talking to other women about me and calling me an asshole? After all I did for her?? (99)

▪ “Lots of cop cars, I can only get a block away.” (166)

▪ “Do you want to explain why a woman’s phone, wallet, and jewelry were buried in your backyard?” (241)

▪ “Bill, this is the most asinine, ridiculous, insane, warped, twisted, fucked up — pardon my French — thing ever. You know I’m 100 percent innocent. I did nothing.” (258)

▪ My newly forming plan would be payback for every woman out there who had to deal with guys like him everywhere. (375)

▪ “I do what I have to do to make money ... and to keep out of jail,” she laughed. “Been there once. I will do anything not to go back, and I do mean anything.” (407)

Harlan Coben. Stay Close. 2012. USA: Dutton paperback, 2019.

(In-house grab; good old reliable Coben) Sarah Green’s husband Stewart went missing seventeen years ago; now Carlton Flynn has similarly disappeared. Both were known at La Crème strip club as obsessive and heavy-handed with the women entertainers. The stripper/party girl known as Cassie vanished the same night Stewart Green was last seen. But whoa, we know that since then, Cassie reverted to her real name of Megan, becoming a loving wife (Dave) and mother (Kaylie and Jordan). Domestic bliss aside, Megan sometimes feels a hankering for those old exciting, fun-filled times. And for the photographer she loved, Ray, whose life went downhill after she was gone. She never saw him after that, keeping her old identity well hidden. Detective Broome is on Flynn’s case, wondering why both missing men—even so far apart in time—disappeared on the same exact February day.

Ray and Megan, independently and for different reasons, assist Broome’s investigation; Ray has a photo of Flynn taken in his last known location—the same place where Cassie last saw Stewart. Mix it up with a corrupt police chief, a kind lawyer, multiple missing men, and a living-breathing-scary Barbie doll, and you’ve got as many questions as Detective Broome has. Megan is trying to protect her family from the results of her secrets until a stalker confronts her in one of the fiercest fights I’ve ever read. Secrets turn into targets for death and a serial killer is not the only criminal.

Coben delves into the intricate motives of the human heart while he spins a murderous love story on more than one level. Boffo!

Bits

▪ “Many of these men ... well, no one is looking for them. No one wants to find them.” (35)

▪ The air always crackled around Cassie. There was fun and wildness and spontaneity, and there was warmth and kindness and intelligence. (39-40)

▪ “When you first saw us,” Barbie said, “you thought we were angels sent to save you.” (98)

▪ If there were holes in her story—and there were—Dave never looked too closely at them. He was both a trusting soul and in love. (117)

▪ She had been crazy about him. He had been crazy about her. They didn’t so much break up as get ripped apart. (128)

▪ Their victims—if that was the right word—were scum. Ken and Barbie hurt them, yes, but none were pure or undeserving. (152)

▪ Goldberg nudged him aside and put on a pair of glasses. When his gaze landed on the sketch of the young couple, his body convulsed as though he’d been zapped with a stun gun. (244)

▪ She was livid with herself for not appreciating what she had, for needing to poke at the past, for not understanding that a certain amount of dissatisfaction was part of the human experience—and mostly, she was pissed off that this stupid blond bitch wanted to kill her. (315)