Novels No. 101

 

Abigail Dean. The Death of Us. USA: Viking, 2025.

To begin with, Dean plays it cool and cryptic with main characters Isabel and Edward so their relationship is confusing. What is clear is that the serial “South London Invader” – Nigel Wood – is about to be sentenced for numerous crimes including murder, dating as far back as twenty-five years. After selecting and spying on his victims, Wood notoriously invaded homes at night in order to terrorize a husband-and-wife couple—restraining the man, raping the woman. Escalation then moved to killing his victims. The sentencing hearing involves many victim impact statements, Edward and Isabel included. Crowds of people are in attendance, some having come long distances. Edward plans to be one of the courtroom speakers; will he finally be able to articulate what he can’t express to Isabel?

Isabel (in 1^st person) and Edward (3^rd person) take turns to narrate the story—their history together and apart. Since Wood was not caught for years while repeating his crimes, the victims’ psychological damage was rarely healing. Support groups and friends do their best. Through that time, Detective Etta Elioglu was the only police to recognize the same-perpetrator aspect of the crimes, working persistently to try to identify him. Among the avid media, journalist Royce is the most obsessed with the magnitude of the drama. Isabel’s portion of the book’s narrative addresses Wood directly; this is her impact statement—will she ever be rid of him?—how she and Edward could not speak of it to each other, thereafter failing to communicate the necessary comfort.

Human nature can respond variously to an external imposition of impotence. With skilled insight, Dean has crafted how a mystery was solved, but more: a profound love story that weaves before and after the fatal night.

Isabel

▪ “I cannot conceive of the idea,” Etta said, “that these are his first attacks.” (72)

▪ You moved the knife to the corner of my eye, and you said, to Edward: “Shut the fuck up. Come here. You’ll tie her up for me.” (111)

▪ “It may not feel like it, just now. But you’ve been injured. You’ve been traumatised.” (125)

▪ I spoke to Patrick Royce, Etta’s first choice, the same man who had followed us to France and made a career of South London Invader speculation. (245)

Edward

▪ That was the only way Edward could live, believing that he had faced something inhuman and undefeatable. (29)

▪ “Some records referred to a support group for the Invader’s male victims. Something Elioglu thought she’d set up.” (39)

▪ Isabel was good at not appearing to be frightened, but she always was, and he knew this because he was, too. (178)

 ▪ How was he supposed to stand before a judge who had read his name in a newspaper just that morning? How was he to instruct associates, interns, secretaries, knowing how they talked? (209)

Charlie Donlea. Guess Again. USA: Kensington Publishing Corp., 2025.

You have to buy into forty-five-year-old Ethan Hall being, first, a highly successful detective with the state Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) for ten years, then retraining to become a highly successful emergency room doctor. Ethan is much happier helping people than witnessing the carnage caused by bad guys. But his former partner, Pete Kramer, and state governor Mark Jones convince him to investigate the cold case of the governor’s daughter who went missing ten years ago. Callie Jones was a high school student at the time; we know (Ethan doesn’t) that Callie had been having a secret affair with her school sports coach, Blake Cordis. Over thirty years ago, Francis Bernard was suspected but never charged for the “Lake Michigan Massacres”—a series of young women murdered and left on a beach. Instead, Bernard was arrested and convicted of killing policeman Henry Hall, Ethan’s father. Oddly, it’s devious Bernard – locked up in prison – who gives Ethan a clue to Callie’s case.

Moreover, we also know that a mystery figure named Eugenia Morgan is able to communicate with and follow instructions from Bernard. Examining what’s known about Callie’s last day before vanishing, Ethan will try to find her old friends, her sister Jaycee, and others to interview—but it’s all been done before. Area newcomer Christian Malone provides extra-special tech assistance; Dr Lindsay Larkin provides psychological expertise; and Ethan’s girlfriend, city detective Maddie Johnson doesn’t doubt that Bernard will find a way to kill her. Ethan finds himself dealing with more than one surprising crime. Good title!

Each chapter is tightly constructed for creating maximum suspense, but please—an entire chapter in italics (small-ish font)? Annoying, and breaks the rhythm. Compelling as it is, the story has several moments or occurrences hard to swallow; nevertheless, you’ll be guessing again and again.

Bits

▪ Her therapist called it an obsession. The medical term was hybristophilia. But Eugenia knew she suffered from neither obsession nor a medical condition. She was in love. (44)

▪ “It’s sad, really. You’re so lost you have to ask your father’s killer for directions.” (108)

▪ “You were in prison for more than twenty years when Callie went missing.” (146)

▪ “How I know is immaterial. What I know is crucial. And most importantly, what I want in exchange for that information.” (146)

▪ She climbed through the window, carrying with her a Callaway 9-iron golf club, and headed straight for his office. (183)

▪ Months of planning had shrunk to weeks. Weeks to days. And now mere hours stood in the way of their new beginning together. (224)

▪ “Maddie doesn’t need a gimp DCI agent to protect her. She’s got round-the-clock protection from Milwaukee PD.” (254-5)