The Butterfly Trap

On the surface this is a he-said, she-said crime tale, but there’s much more going on in this darker departure from Simon’s previous work. It’s a close examination of what happens when one partner is completely smitten—the reader will be waiting for the yearning to tip over into obsessive stalking—and the other not only believes themselves not right for this love, but unworthy overall. The partners are Greg and Anya, Greg a research scientist who later enters a medical residency program and Anya a painter who hasn’t yet made it in Boston’s cutthroat art scene. The hippy veneer on vicious creative-world competition is perfectly portrayed here, as is Anya’s pushy mom, who holds her riches over her broke daughter’s head while practically mandating an arranged marriage to Greg, MD. On the sidelines are friends of the couple who become involved in a crime that’s almost an afterthought to the relationship struggles but that serves to tie up the tense alternating narratives in a shocking way. Simon’s fans will appreciate this swerve; it’s also a must for readers who enjoyed the dueling male and female narrators in Araminta Hall’s One of the Good Guys.