In her fiction debut, Madden gifts readers with a complex psychological story that explores the lasting effects of violence and who controls the narrative of trauma. The novel unfolds from the alternating perspectives of three women whose lives are linked by one man, Calvin, who has just been murdered. They are Birdie Chang, a woman who was sexually abused by Calvin and is now on the run from him; Linzie King, another victim of Calvin’s, a former reality-TV star who has published a bestselling memoir about her experience; and Mary-Beth, Calvin’s devoted mother, who fiercely defended him throughout his legal troubles and struggles to reconcile the son she loves with the person capable of such actions. Moving across their voices and time, from Whidbey Island’s lush cool green to a sticky, tacky North Pole gas station in Florida, each woman examines what part she played in Calvin’s actions. A cast of secondary characters fills in the blanks. There’s Syl, Mary-Beth’s sister, who wonders why she ever allowed Cal into her home, which put her twin daughters in danger. And Rich, who meets Birdie on the ferry to Whidbey and offers to “take care of” Calvin for her, as well as Trace, Birdie’s girlfriend, who travels to Florida to do that herself. Madden masterfully captures the haze of lost and found memories, the urges to take revenge, and the regrets of those who knew, but did nothing.—Dodie Ownes
