Novels No. 106

 

Lisa Jewell. Don’t Let Him In. USA: Atria Books, 2025.

In the Swann household, Aislin (“Ash”) seems a rather aimless young woman, way overqualified for working retail in a thrift shop; she’s mourning her father Paddy, killed in a freak accident. Her mom Nina is almost ready to move on when she meets charismatic Nick Radcliffe. In another household, Martha has three young-ish children and runs a successful floral business, accustoming herself to the job demands of her second husband Alistair, who is often called away for days in the hotel business. A third POV comes from an anonymous male “four years earlier.” He is busy deceiving his wife Tara about his work and his finances, hiding a head-over-heels affair with a younger woman. Is it obvious that three women – or three men – are going to connect somehow?

Each woman considers her husband/partner the perfect man—thoughtful, caring, sensitive, smart, fun. You know what they say about “too good to be true”? “I’m really sorry, darling” is the constant refrain excusing himself for working away from home for days on end. How long before the smitten woman asks for more answers about his hardworking, erratic job? Ash Swann is feeling very protective of mom Nina, who now manages Paddy’s three thriving restaurants. Ash doesn’t realize that what she starts as a mild investigation of Nick is going to blow the lid off the most bizarre activities. Chronology shifts between the present and recent past. It helps to make a chart as you go.

Never underestimate a master crime writer spinning a tale that, serpent-like, coils back on itself. So inventive it’s guaranteed to cause dizziness. This is a solid, engrossing example of why Lisa Jewell is known as the U.K. suspense queen.

Bits

▪ “Aha,” he says, striding into the room, all teeth and good hair and expansiveness, kindness, warmth, and glow. “Lovely to see you again.” (25-6)

▪ Instead, she opens her mouth just a crack and half whispers the words: “Jonathan, the police are here.” (51)

▪ I want to break her jaw. I want to feel it shatter under my hardened knuckles. (54)

▪ This marriage ends when I am ready for it to end, and not a moment sooner. (62)

▪ “Darling,” I say in that voice I use when I’m with her: clipped, elegant, private school, not the soft, swollen, northern lilt I use when I’m with Martha. (76)

▪ I garner sympathy, I foster team spirit, and then I find ways to extract money. (94)

▪ “Christ, Jonathan. You are such a bullshitter. Literally every word that comes out of your mouth is a lie.” (139)

▪ He is everything, this man. He is everything. And she finds herself throwing her arms around him and squeezing him hard to her ... (161)

Ruth Kelly. The Ice Retreat. UK: Pan Books, 2024.

TCDC* The opening scene is harrowing enough to warn you it’s going to be a rough journey. Investigating a suspicious business operation is one thing, but adding a disturbed protagonist immediately piles on the tension before even stepping forth. I should have paid more attention to my radar on high alert; not what I signed up for? Hollie had a successful season of her Bad Medicine cable series and wants a stunning pilot to guarantee a second. Her burning sights are set on exposing the Ice Retreat, a Swiss-located healing therapy spa that promises relief from all kinds of pain. Hollie is obsessed with their leader, Ariel Rose, convinced it’s all a huge criminal fraud that conceals the “patients” who don’t recover. Not one to restrain her opinions, she’s being warned by her producer Grace and her sometime husband Mikkel to drop the idea or she’ll go off the deep end—hints of past trauma for Hollie.

Yes, I gave it a good go and plowed on even further, but force-feeding drugs and hallucinations and Nordic fantasy creatures turn me right off. I wish Hollie good luck and a personal therapist.

* TOO Creepy, Didn’t Continue

Robyn Harding. The Drowning Woman. Hachette Book Group, 2023.

Lee Gulliver is living in her car, homeless in Seattle. It’s a huge comedown for an ambitious woman once proudly operating her own boutique restaurant in New York. She’s at the mercy of random thieves who stole her ID and surly Randy, boss of the dingy diner where she works. When Lee instinctively foils an attempted suicide, a bond grows with perpetrator Hazel. Like Lee, Hazel is living in fear, but unlike Lee, she is trapped in a wealthy but sadistic marriage. Did I know where this was leading? Yikes. The two women hatch a plan for Hazel to safely flee from her abusive, controlling husband Benjamin, but Lee is distracted on meeting Jesse, a man who treats her with gentleness and respect. A plan for Hazel’s escape finally involves all three of them but none of it goes accordingly, to Lee’s horror.

Switchabout to Hazel as narrator. A dead man is only the start of new troubles. It becomes clear that each woman suspects the other of double-crossing her with hidden motives. Mutual trust is gone; neither Lee nor Hazel has anyone else to rely on. Will the police or the gangsters find them first? Engulfed by convoluted events, their dreams of beginning a new life are more elusive than ever. For readers raised in the nineteenth century, the concept of total power exchange in a marriage should be educational. Which woman is worse or better off if another man dies?

It’s almost as if the plot is being lost in a snare of emotional turmoil. The predictable ending softens a very intense read, but Canadian author Harding has earned her chops.

Lee

▪ When my restaurant was failing, my life’s dream crumbling before my eyes, I lied, I cheated, and I manipulated. (5)

▪ I’ve been drowning in loneliness and Jesse is oxygen. (75)

▪ Does Hazel really expect me to let myself into her home? To risk an encounter with a violent man? (93)

▪ I didn’t question him about his history because I had secrets, too, parts of myself I wanted to hide. (188)

▪ It is not too late to turn back. To head directly to Sea-Tac airport and get on that plane. (196)

Hazel

▪ “That doesn’t sound like a marriage, Hazel. It sounds like a master and a slave.” (33)

▪ “My god...,” she says softly. “You could pass for me. We’re about the same height. And size. And now we have the same hair.” (92)

▪ I’d sold my freedom for a life of privilege and luxury. And I had agree to an arrangement that was destroying me. (117)

▪ “There’s a strange woman living in the park near your house, Hazel. And she has a knife.” (140)

▪ I knew Jesse was not simply a personal trainer. He had a past he wouldn’t talk about. (140)

▪ “My name is Detective French. We’re arresting your husband for conspiracy to commit murder.” (230)