Tag:

Women

Review

This Might Hurt

by Henrietta Thornton

The first crime here is psychological abuse of two sisters whose father, named only as Sir, is obsessed with building their resilience (“Lord knows you’re not going to get by on talent or gifts”). Sir’s isolated, scared little girls can’t go to bed at night unless they achieve enough points. Chores count, but they must also endure “tests” like sitting in the snow without a coat for an hour, holding their breath for two minutes, and kneeling on broken glass. The abuse leads the younger sister to become obsessed with Houdini and perfect a show based on his escapes, with the psychological underpinnings of that quest not lost on her or on readers. Fast forward to adulthood and there’s possibly a new crime afoot, or at least a mystery, as one sister, Natalie, visits a Maine island where she suspects her sister, Kit, is captive in a cult led by the reclusive, mysterious Teacher. The markers of a cult are glaring, but is Kit being held against her will and what’s behind the other residents’ willingness to obey? The solution is satisfying here, and getting to it will bring home to readers Teacher’s declaration of the book’s central truth: “The difference between a cocoon and a straitjacket [is] perspective.”

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Review

The Younger Wife

by Henrietta Thornton

Quirky meets romantic meets WTF in this Australian import that’s brimming with character. Two very different sisters are at the center of the maelstrom. Rachel is a beautiful and successful baker who spends a week perfecting tiny roses on a wedding cake but eats two tiers of it by the fistful hours before delivery. Her sister, Tully, married with two little boys, is consumed with anxiety and a compulsion to steal. The younger wife of the title is Heather, who’s marrying Rachel and Tully’s father, Stephen Aston, and whose big day opens the novel. Stephen’s ex-wife roaming the altar during the vows is bad enough, but when the couple moves to the sacristy, a scream is heard and the celebrant reappears in the church covered in blood. Hepworth (The Secrets of Midwives) then chronicles the leadup to this chaos, a saga that involves a hot water bottle stuffed with $100,000, romance with cake-pun-loving delivery man, and hilarious observations about the million ways we sabotage ourselves. The Astons also face their share of heartaches and worse (Alzheimer’s disease, rape, and domestic violence are part of the story). For fans of domestic suspense and of the Australian show Offspring, which also features loving sisters and their interesting choices.

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Review

The Shadow House

by Brian Kenney

If you arrived at your new house and found a package at the entrance, containing not some welcome brownies from a neighbor but a grotesquely mutilated bird, what would you do? If you’re anything like me, you’d head for the hills. But Alex, a single mother-of-two, is made from tougher stuff. Escaping from an abusive partner in Sydney, she’s trying out Pine Ridge, an ecovillage out in the boondocks. She’s committed to making it work, especially for her teenage son, who got up to some nasty behavior online. But the bird is only the beginning, as the creepiness includes more horrifying presents, vandalism, and surveillance. It turns out that Alex’s experiences aren’t all that different from those of another family six years ago, but unlike many a thriller protagonist, she’s no victim, and sets out to confront the evil before it destroys her and her family. This is a wonderfully written work of suspense that succeeds in being both completely terrifying and totally believable—no easy feat. For fans of Lisa Jewell and Ruth Ware.

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Review

The Book of Cold Cases

by Brian Kenney

A medical receptionist by day, Shea Collins operates a popular true-crime website that specializes in cold cases. Single, a loner, and herself a victim—she was abducted as a child—Shea reserves her passions for her blog. Until the day that Beth Greer comes to Shea’s office. Back in 1977, Greer was tried and acquitted in the Lady Killer Murders, in which two men were killed, seemingly for the fun of it, by a female serial killer. Since then, the beautiful, sophisticated, and super-rich Beth has spoken to nearly no one—making it all the more remarkable that she agrees to be interviewed by Shea. Beth slowly opens up to the interviewer—inviting her into her super creepy mansion and deeply introspective life—as Shea struggles to put together the fragments Beth shares. This novel is beautifully written and perfectly paced. It creates a powerful sense of place in its depiction of an Oregon coastal community, and doesn’t shy away from tackling larger social issues, such as the sexism Beth experienced throughout her trial. Finally, its use of the paranormal—something I typically shy away from—is as terrifying as it is credible

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Review

Like a Sister

by Henrietta Thornton

From the outside, Desiree Pierce had it all. Famous hip-hop producer father, starring role on a rich-kid reality show, a huge audience following her every diamond-studded move on Instagram. But her sister, Melina, or Lena, has waited years for the phone call saying that drugs have finally killed Desiree, and that moment is here. Fed up as she is with donning her metaphorical Super Black Woman cape, Lena drags it on, again, to start picking up the pieces. But the background to Desiree’s supposedly accidental death starts to look off. For starters, she was terrified of needles and never would have injected heroin like the police say. And what was she doing in Lena’s residential Bronx neighborhood, miles from her glitzy lifestyle? Lena’s fast-paced investigation of what she believes to be a murder takes her back to painful episodes with her family, a clan tight-knit enough to care deeply about one another but that at the same time can get exasperated to the point of estrangement. Twists combine with deft writing and compelling characters—especially the relatable Lena—to create a memorable novel that’s perfect for those who like tales of flawed love and strong women.

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Review

Catch Her When She Falls

by Brian Kenney

After college and a stint in Chicago, Micah Wilkes returns to her hometown of Calvary, PA. She ends up settling down with Ryan, a former high-school classmate, and opens Stomping Grounds, a coffee shop. All is well, except Micah can’t quite get past the murder of Emily, her best friend back in high school, especially since the murderer was Alex, Micah’s boyfriend, who’s now in jail. Then Micah receives a threatening text—“It should have been you, not Emily”—which propels her into the past, and slowly her well-constructed world starts to crack. She gets drawn into true-crime blogs and forums that rehash the murder and speculate about Micah’s motives. Her house is broken into, and remnants of Emily’s diary are left behind. Ryan, it turns out, has been in touch with Alex this whole time, visiting him in jail. No matter which way she turns, something or someone pops up, forcing her to question the night Emily was murdered, her own role in the crime, and who could have murdered her friend. In the end, Micah—totally unhinged—heads off to confront the one person who can help her understand that night ten years ago. A real slow burn, this book will please readers who appreciate deep character development, little violence, and plenty of suspense.

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Review

Secrets of Our House

by Henrietta Thornton

This is one of those books that makes you want to befriend the characters, or at least get annual updates on how it’s all going. It’s a family story with two couples as focal points: Desiree (Desi) and Peter, whose marriage seems to be ending, due in part to a mysterious past event; and their daughter Jules and her boyfriend Will, crazy-in-love teenagers. While the young couple’s romance is just starting, it also seems doomed, as Jules is a rich, summertime-only visitor to Will’s rural North Carolina town and is leaving soon for college while less-well-off Will stays put. Both relationships are tested by tragedies and bring each character’s most extreme emotions to the forefront, feelings that are poignantly described by Frey (Until I Find You, 2020). Desi is a particular highlight, with her flawed parenting lending a rawness and realness to the book; the strain induced by tragedy brings her to drop a bombshell revelation that shocks family and readers alike. After this, you may feel like no other characters can measure up and head straight to the TV; once that has passed, try a book I’ve recommended in First Clue before, but I’m doing it again! Paullina Simons’s The Girl in Times Square; those characters almost ruined me for other books.

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Review

Her Perfect Life

by Henrietta Thornton

Lily Atwood has the titular perfect life. She’s an Emmy-winning journalist, the kind who wants to be hard-hitting but mostly presents human-interest stories from the comfort of a studio. Every evening, Lily gets to return to her designer Boston home to spend time with her daughter, Rowen, the center of her single-mom existence. Some of Lily’s stories, the juicer ones, are fed to the journalist and her behind-the-scenes right-hand, Greer, by a man calling himself Mr. Smith. They’re sure it’s a pseudonym, but are content to idly wonder about Smith’s identity and motives as long as the tips keep coming. Then he starts getting sinister—at least, Lily thinks it’s Smith who’s behind anonymous flower deliveries to her home, though she’s never given him her address. He also seems overly familiar with events at her daughter’s school. Lily is afraid that he may reveal private details that could finish her career, but she soon has far more to fear. An author’s note reveals that Ryan wrote this during COVID, and the feeling of being trapped and at the same time wanting to hide away permeates the novel. The surprises keep coming, and the tightly woven storytelling closes with a deft, satisfying twist. Fans of the author should add this to their library hold lists as it’s not going to sit on shelves. While waiting, they can try Belinda Bauer’s The Beautiful Dead, which also features a journalist in peril.

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Review

Reckless Girls

by Brian Kenney

Lux McAllister is eager to get out there and explore the world. She’s lost her lousy job cleaning hotel rooms in Hawaii, is still mourning her mother’s death, and fears that her boyfriend, Nico, is getting too comfortable to leave. So when Brittany and Amy, best friends from college, hire Nico to sail them to an incredibly remote island in the South Pacific, she’s game. After all, what could go wrong? Pretty much everything, it turns out. After surviving a horrific storm, they finally get to Meroe Island, and are indeed dazzled by its beauty. But they’re also surprised to discover another ship anchored off the beach, with two occupants, Jake and Eliza, who are rich, friendly, and more than willing to share their wine cellar. The six of them live out their Robinson Crusoe fantasies until things begin to fray. And Meroe Island, famous for its history of shipwrecks and murder, begins to live up to its reputation. Reckless Girls builds slowly while we are treated to lots of backstory, but that’s OK. The characters are compelling, the set up is worth it, and once the suspense starts we are 100 percent in. For fans of Ruth Ware and Lisa Jewell.

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